In order to promote the high-quality development of the information and communications industry and support Chinese-style modernization and new industrialization, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Information and Communications Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). In order to better understand and implement the "Plan", the relevant contents are interpreted as follows.
1. What is the background for the promulgation of the “Plan”?
The information and communication industry is a leading force in innovation-driven development, a basic industry for national economic and social development, and a strategic frontier for international competition and future development. Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the information and communication industry has achieved a series of leap-forward development achievements. Infrastructure capabilities have leapt, key technologies have achieved breakthroughs, industrial strength has steadily improved, integrated applications have flourished, industry governance capabilities have significantly enhanced, and network security capabilities have been continuously consolidated. It has become my country's globally competitive and leading advantageous industry, and its strategic, basic and leading role in the overall economic and social development has become increasingly prominent.
The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is an important stage for the information and communication industry to consolidate and enhance its competitive advantages and leading position. The internal and external environment faced by the industry has undergone profound changes. From an international perspective, the external environment is changing rapidly, instability and uncertainty factors have increased significantly, and competition among major countries around emerging technology industries has become more intense. Domestically, the economic and social digital transformation process is accelerating, and the new generation of information and communication technology represented by artificial intelligence has accelerated evolution, innovative breakthroughs, and cross-integration, bringing major opportunities to the development of the information and communication industry. From the perspective of the industry itself, the information and communications industry still has shortcomings and weaknesses in infrastructure capabilities, key core technologies, integrated applications, and governance systems. The preparation and implementation of the "Plan" is of great significance for unifying thinking, gathering strength, and jointly promoting the high-quality development of the information and communications industry.
2. What are the overall considerations of the Plan?
The "Plan" focuses on services to support Chinese-style modernization and new industrialization, adheres to the coordination of domestic and global perspectives, adheres to the combination of goal orientation and problem orientation, adheres to the integration of current and long-term planning, adheres to the coordination of comprehensive planning and highlighting key points, adheres to the unity of strategy and operation, and scientifically plans for high-quality development of the industry during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. The following three aspects are mainly considered during the preparation process:
First, fully implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, fully connect the central government’s recommendations on the “15th Five-Year Plan” with the national “15th Five-Year Plan” outline’s major decisions and arrangements for the development of the information and communications industry, and deepen, refine and implement each item in the “Plan”.
The second is to actively comply with the development trend of the integration of artificial intelligence and information communications, seize new opportunities and new challenges, and deploy tasks such as the development of intelligent computing power, the construction of intelligent Internet networks, network intelligent upgrades, artificial intelligence service supervision, and artificial intelligence security governance.
The third is to fully consider the current situation that the industry's growth has slowed down and new growth drivers have not yet been effectively formed. Based on the transitional period of intergenerational evolution of information and communication technology during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, tasks such as network infrastructure evolution and upgrading, 6G technology research and development, and digital intelligence application expansion have been deployed to strive to cultivate new growth drivers.
3. What are the overall requirements of the Plan?
The "Plan" adheres to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implements the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Party and all 20th Plenary Sessions, conscientiously implements the deployment of the Fourth Plenary Session, completely and accurately implements the new development concept, accelerates the construction of a new development pattern, anchors the basic goal of realizing new industrialization, and coordinates Development and security, with the theme of promoting high-quality development, adhere to people first, reform and innovation, serve the entity, open cooperation, focus on laying foundations, benefiting people's livelihood, improving governance, preventing risks, and promoting openness, continuously consolidate and enhance the competitive advantages and leading position of my country's information and communication industry, and provide strong support for promoting Chinese-style modernization.
The "Plan" proposes that by 2030, a new generation communication network with complete coverage and leading performance will be fully built, accelerating the formation of a technologically advanced, secure and controllable information and communication industry system, effectively building an information and communication industry governance system that combines technology and management, and is agile and efficient. It will create a network and data security guarantee capability that is fully interconnected and practical. The level of industry empowerment and global development will be further improved. The modernization of the information and communication industry will take solid steps, laying a solid foundation for basically realizing the modernization of the information and communication industry by 2035.
4. What are the main indicators proposed in the Plan?
The "Plan" lists 13 major indicators in table form, covering five aspects: overall development, innovative development, green development, infrastructure, and application popularization, fully reflecting the reasonable growth in quantity and effective improvement in quality. The overall development aspect includes information and communication industry revenue, cumulative investment in information infrastructure, and the growth rate of total telecommunications business. The innovation development aspect is mainly reflected in the R&D investment intensity index. The green development aspect includes the decline in carbon dioxide emissions per unit of telecommunications business volume, the operation of newly built large and ultra-large computing power facilities, Utilization efficiency, infrastructure includes the number of 5G (including 5G-A) base stations per 10,000 people, the number of 50G-PON ports, the scale of intelligent computing power, and the scale of advanced storage capacity. The application popularity includes the penetration rate of 5G (including 5G-A) users, the number of broadband users above gigabit, and the number of communication network terminal connections.
5. What key tasks has been deployed in the Plan?
The "Plan" proposes 26 key tasks and 13 columns focusing on six aspects: information infrastructure construction, information and communication industry system, industry governance system and governance efficiency, network and data security, as well as integrated application expansion and global development.
The first is to deploy information infrastructure appropriately in advance. Focusing on the deployment of tasks in the four aspects of network facilities, computing power facilities, space networks, and the intelligent, green and integrated integration of infrastructure, four columns are set up to guide basic network quality improvement, computing power infrastructure foundation building and quality improvement, satellite-ground integrated development, and intelligent body interconnection network construction.
The second is to cultivate and strengthen the information and communication industry system. It includes four tasks: researching key core technologies, enhancing the resilience of industrial and supply chains, building standards systems, and integrating innovation and development of large and medium-sized enterprises. Two columns are set up: 6G technology research and development, and information and communication industry solidification and strong links.
The third is to systematically optimize the industry governance system. Focusing on the deployment of tasks in six aspects: basic resource management, market management, equipment management, optimization services, emergency communications guarantee, and network operation support guarantee, three columns are set up: innovative and healthy development of platform economy, improvement of "network management network" supervisory capabilities, and emergency communications and network operation stable and strong foundation.
The fourth is to comprehensively enhance network and data security capabilities. Focusing on the deployment of tasks in five aspects: network security, data security, digital-physical integration security, security industry, and telecommunications network fraud prevention and governance, two columns are set up to improve network and data security capabilities, new industrialized security assurance, and improve efficiency of telecommunications network fraud governance.
Fifth, continue to expand the breadth and depth of integrated applications. Focusing on the deployment of tasks in the three aspects of empowering production, life, and social governance, a column for industrial Internet application innovation and development is set up.
Sixth, steadily improve the global development level of the industry. It includes four tasks: the construction of international information infrastructure, the formulation of international rules and standards, the expansion of opening up in the telecommunications field, and global cooperation. A column for the protection of international submarine and land cable construction is set up.
6. How to organize and implement the Plan?
The "Plan" mainly promotes the implementation of the plan by strengthening policy support and element guarantees, and doing a good job in monitoring and evaluation. In terms of policy support and factor guarantees, strengthen cross-departmental coordination, ministry-provincial linkage, government-enterprise collaboration, strengthen various policy coordination and guarantees of resource factors such as land, sea, electricity, data and frequency, and encourage financial institutions to increase support. In terms of monitoring and evaluation, we should do a good job in dynamic monitoring, mid-term evaluation and summary evaluation of the implementation of the plan, comprehensively grasp the progress of the implementation of the plan, and promote the implementation of the planning tasks.
