Promote the effective integration of the digital economy and the real economy
——Also analyze some vague understandings
Liu Shijin
When it comes to the digital economy, special attention should be paid to the concept of the digital real economy. In recent years, our emphasis on developing the real economy is aimed at the so-called virtual economy. The first problem of virtual economy is over-financialization. For example, real estate is over-hyped as an investment product, and financial activities are over-circulated.
Another situation is the rapid development of informatization and digitization, which some people think is a virtual activity that deviates from the real economy. There are also some views that the development of e-commerce platforms has crowded out a large number of shops, causing an impact on the real economy. Can that lead to the conclusion that the financial and digital economy should not be developed? Obviously not. Because finance is the core of modern economy, and the development of digital economy is the general trend, these are social consensus with sufficient theoretical basis. The real question lies in how finance can serve the real economy and how digital technology can be effectively integrated with the traditional real economy.
The criterion for the effective integration of financial and digital technologies with the real economy is whether it is conducive to improving productivity. For example, over-financialization does not increase productivity, it does not create wealth, but redistributes social wealth. Some unfair competition behaviors on Internet platforms have similar characteristics. In terms of productivity, we need to pay attention to the rapid development of the digital real economy in some industries, such as production and distribution. The deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy in these industries has the characteristics of direct involvement of digital technology in the process of the real economy, heavy assets, large number of employed people, and optimized layout of the supply chain, which significantly improves productivity and forms a relatively strong competitive advantage.
Emphasizing the development of the real economy is not simply a return to the traditional real economy, nor is it just an emphasis on the development of material production. In fact, the traditional real economy has a large surplus, and there may not be market demand and competitiveness if the supply is increased. Therefore, we are faced with two different real economies, one is the real economy with declining traditional competitiveness and serious excess; the other is the new real economy enabled by digitalization and greatly improved in productivity. A real challenge we face is to achieve transformation, how to turn the traditional real economy into a new real economy with enhanced productivity after digital empowerment.
There are two views on the relationship between manufacturing and services. One emphasizes that the manufacturing industry is very important and is the foundation of the country, and the proportion must be maintained above a certain standard. Another thinks that the rising proportion of the service industry is in line with the law of economic structural transformation, and China has reached a stage where the service industry is the main development. Both of these arguments sound plausible, but there are bound to be constraints. If you look from the outside to the inside, it is not difficult to find that the two are not opposed, but support each other. The service industry, especially the producer service industry that directly provides services to the manufacturing industry, including research and development, design, logistics, finance, information services, human resources services, legal business services, etc., was initially included in a large number of manufacturing industries. With the development of these businesses and the improvement of the level of specialized division of labor, outsourcing services have been adopted and other formats have been adopted, which have been classified into the territory of the service industry. These producer services and manufacturing industries are integrated and highly interdependent. A place with a developed producer service industry usually corresponds to a high-level manufacturing industry. On the contrary, if the producer service industry is lagging behind, the development of high-level manufacturing is also wishful thinking. A very worthy topic for discussion is to add up the manufacturing industry and the producer services that directly provide services for observation and analysis, and accordingly propose a statistical concept of "manufacturing and related services", so as to objectively, comprehensively and scientifically View and promote the coordinated development of manufacturing and service industries.
Regarding the digital real economy, the following aspects need to be paid attention to:
First, the digital transformation of the real economy should be from consumption to production, from circulation to manufacturing. In recent years, the development of the digital economy is mainly distributed in retail and wholesale, social media and other fields, mainly for individuals. In other words, focus on how to reach the consumer's field after the product is produced. In the next step, the focus will gradually shift to the production process of the product. If the digitization of consumption and circulation is the prelude, the digitization of production is the big drama of the development of the digital economy, and can also substantially improve the quality, efficiency and sustainability of the real economy.
Second, the digital focus of the real economy is gradually shifting to artificial intelligence. To use an inappropriate analogy, compared with the real economy, the Internet is equivalent to a channel, 5G technology is the high-speed rail, big data is the raw material, cloud platform is equivalent to warehousing, and artificial intelligence is machinery and equipment. While other technologies mainly generate, transport, store, and connect data, artificial intelligence uses data to produce more informative and valuable data. The initial stage of e-commerce, social media platforms, etc. is mainly the product of data connection. The rapid development and application of natural language processing, image recognition, intelligent driving, algorithm recommendation, etc., shows the great potential of artificial intelligence technology. The application of artificial intelligence in the real economy can be manifested in the optimization of the allocation of production capacity, as well as in the real-time perception and prediction of the operation of the macro economy, industry and specific product market, thereby significantly improving the efficiency of resource allocation and economic operation. stability.
Third, the digitization of the real economy needs to correct the relationship between the government, enterprises and the market. The government should focus on formulating rules, maintaining fair competition, providing infrastructure and basic public services, and reasonably guiding expectations. It does not need to intervene too much in specific technical routes, but rather depends on market competition and the process of industrial development. Regulation must keep pace with the development of digital technology and balance the relationship with innovation.
(The author is the deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference)
