Original: Gu Ziming This article is authorized to be reproduced on WeChat official account: Political Affairs Hall Plus2019
On the 27th, an important document that will affect China’s development in the next few decades was officially released.
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 27 (Xinhua) Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China (hereinafter referred to as the “Plan”), and issued a notice requiring all regions and departments to earnestly implement it in combination with the actual situation.
The release of this top-level design document provides an important engine for the high-quality development of China’s modernization, and enables China to take the lead in opening institutional changes in the global competition in the new era.
It also marks the end of the old game rules and the official opening of the new game rules.
Since 1979, China has witnessed more than 40 years of rapid growth. With the help of globalization, China has created remarkable economic achievements. In one generation, it has surpassed many developed countries and leaped to the second largest economy in the world.
There are many factors that contribute to China’s miracle, one of which cannot be ignored is a series of important documents issued by the Central Committee and the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, which include the introduction of foreign capital, fiscal revenue and other indicators into the performance evaluation system of local officials, making economic development the most important standard for local officials to be promoted.
In the early 1980s, with the clarification of the evaluation mechanism and the prevalence of “GDP only theory”, under the leadership of several provinces, the eastern provinces took the lead in opening the fierce competition at the economic level, making the “political leadership” that lasted for decades quickly become the past.
In the mid-1980s, the central government delegated the management authority of cadres, and the trend of “rolling the economy” spread rapidly from the provincial government to the municipal and county level. To stand out in the fierce competition, officials at all levels need to develop the economy.
In the 1990s, the central government clarified the tax distribution system, promoted the value-added tax, and allowed the local government to control the tax sources independently. At the same time, there was a fierce resource competition among the governments at all levels across the country, which brought together the government officials at all levels, and had to systematically promote the local economic development and urban infrastructure.
Finally, when the potential of local policies was exhausted, the national team took the initiative to maintain the rapid development of local economy at all levels through policies such as shed reform.
In short, China’s miracle of rapid economic development in the past 40 years is to stimulate the desire for competition of the entire government system through a set of meticulous top-level design, so that every cell can participate in the global competition.
After all, “no one knows volumes better than the Chinese”.
Now, with globalization coming to an end, the average growth rate of 10% in the era of reform and opening up is unsustainable. China needs new economic growth points, and also needs new incentive policies to drive governments at all levels to open a “roll”.
As a result, Xinhua News Agency authorized the release of the Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China on the 27th.
There is a lot of material in it, one of which is very important, that is, “take the construction of digital China as a reference for the assessment and evaluation of relevant party and government leaders”.
This is likely to mean that the “economic leadership”, which has replaced the “political leadership” since the 1980s, will also be replaced, and the future evaluation mechanism will focus on the “digital leadership”.
That is to say, in order to realize the national digital transformation, the central government will greatly open the promotion channel to the local government, and the local government will strive to develop the digital economy in order to win the favor of the superiors.
The “GDP figures” of local governments at all levels will gradually fade, and the growth rate of “digital GDP” will gradually become the most important competitive indicator.
It can even be said that with the emergence of quantifiable evaluation of the digital economy, only officials who understand the digital economy and how to develop it will be star officials in the new era.
Let’s make an idealized outlook.
With the implementation of a series of supporting policies of the organization department, in order to stand out, the provincial governments will start fierce digital competition to compete for the digital industry chain in different directions.
After that, according to the digital industry layout of each province, fierce internal competition and cooperation will be launched among the cities in the same province to connect the upstream and downstream of the digital industry chain in the province.
After that, with the confirmation of data tax legislation and property rights by the state, the nationwide digital internal volume will be fully opened, and local governments at all levels will strive to promote the construction of digital infrastructure in order to compete for data tax, just as they did in promoting the construction of real estate infrastructure.
Finally, when the growth rate of some local digital economy needs to be improved, the national team will take the initiative to guide financial resources to support digital development through innovative financial support, overall planning of various types of financial guidance, national industrial and financial cooperation platform, etc
The wheel of history rolls forward, and the power of the Kangbo cycle cannot be stopped.
In 1979, China took the lead in opening the “economic leadership” in the world, becoming the pioneer in the wave of globalization in the 1970s, enjoying the most dividends in the global industrial division, and becoming the world’s second largest economy at one stroke.
In 2023, at the end of the global 70s group and the beginning of a new Kangbo cycle, China once again took the lead in opening the “digital leadership” in the world, which also indicates that China will once again become the most aggressive trendsetter in the new era tide!