Digital economy is the star in first half of 2018
The Hangzhou government recently reported an economic performance in the first half of 2018 that was lifted by the digital economy, whose revenue hit 445.6 billion yuan ($68.47 billion), a surge of 22.8 percent over the same six months last year.
The added value generated by its digital economy reached 159.2 billion yuan, maintaining the double-digit growth achieved over the past 14 consecutive quarters, and accounting for more than 25 percent of the city’s GDP.
According to statistics provided by the city government, more than 50 percent of economic growth was driven by the digital economy. The revenue of the digital economy for the full year is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan, officials said.
An initiative to upgrade the local administrative system is taking place in Hangzhou, amid the government’s drive to improve the city’s intelligent management of the digital economy.
In March, New H3C Group, a digital services provider, issued a report about the performance so far in the current year of a digital economy index covering Chinese cities, and Hangzhou scored a high mark.
Evaluating city performances — in data and information infrastructure, urban services, urban governance and industrial integration — the index put Hangzhou’s score at 85.9 points out of 100 points, showcasing the city’s leading position in terms of the digital economy among other Chinese cities.
The authorities in Hangzhou have also highlighted innovative modules in the city’s management system, supported by data-driven technology such as big data, mobile payments and cloud computing.
In June last year, Hangzhou took the lead in setting up a big data based administration department, responding to the need to speed up administrative services.
The department integrates scattered data obtained by separate governmental departments, laying the foundations for more efficient governmental services and better urban management.
To date, the new department has accumulated 39 billion pieces of data from 59 city departments, utilized as the city’s high-speed CPU.
Taking real estate registration as an example of the improvements, after adopting the system it now only takes around 60 minutes to complete the entire procedure and get a ownership license.
Officials said the processing time in the approval cycle for investment projects has been shortened by an estimated 30 percent. A total of 86 administrative items can now be processed via smartphone, they added.
The new governance system has also been employed to guide the city’s traffic. A number of routes in the city, including elevated and main roads in urban areas have adopted the system to relieve traffic congestions.
Alibaba Group, which is headquartered in Hangzhou, is one of the companies behind those services.
Thanks to knowledge and experience built up by local e-commerce giants, a number of industry clusters are utilizing digital solutions.
“The digital economy has added new impetus to Hangzhou’s development, enabling it to build a new ecology and system for industry,” said a government official from the city’s economic and information management department.
Zhou Jiangyong, Party chief of Hangzhou, said that the city should continue to pursue the development of the digital economy, strengthening its core competitiveness.