New infrastructure construction has entered a fast track

The new infrastructure has entered a stage of full development

Li Fuqiang (Director of Technology Innovation and Strategic Management Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) : In recent years, the construction of new infrastructure represented by 5G, artificial intelligence, data centers, industrial Internet, Internet of Things, etc. (hereinafter referred to as "new infrastructure") has received unprecedented attention from the whole society. As a new engine leading economic development, new infrastructure leads the development of high-tech and related industries from the height of creating the forward-looking needs of the future society, and further promotes the digital age to become a reality.

New infrastructure is not like the traditional infrastructure construction, building roads, Bridges, buildings and construction, many times the new infrastructure in the city is not easy to be detected, but you can enjoy the various conveniences it brings. The main function of traditional infrastructure is to support the interaction of people flow and logistics, while the key function of new infrastructure is to support the perception, transmission, storage and calculation of data elements, to lead the technology flow, capital flow and material flow with data flow, and to provide basic support for digital transformation, intelligent upgrading and integrated innovation. From a global perspective, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation has deepened, and uncertainty has increased, and some countries and regions have also launched similar "new infrastructure" concepts and long-term development plans. For example, on March 10, 2020, the European Commission published the New Industrial Strategy for Europe, which sets out Europe's goal of becoming a global digital leader while maintaining its technological and digital sovereignty. New infrastructure has become a new bright spot for major developed countries to drive economic growth.

The new infrastructure is of great significance to stabilize growth, promote innovation, improve people's livelihood, strengthen weak links, and adjust the economic structure. China lays out new infrastructure from the national strategic level and improves top-level design. The outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan puts the construction of new infrastructure in an important position in the construction of infrastructure system. In January 2022, The State Council issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Digital Economy Development, proposing to accelerate the construction of information network infrastructure; In December 2022, the CPC Central Committee and The State Council issued the Outline of the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand (2022-2035) to systematically lay out new infrastructure. Local governments have carried out overall planning for the layout of new infrastructure in light of social development and industrial needs. In May 2020, Shanghai proposed to integrate new technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet, and Internet of Things into urban production and life, making new infrastructure an important support for high-quality economic development and efficient urban governance. In September 2021, Sichuan Province proposed to initially build an intensive, efficient, economical, smart, green, safe and reliable new infrastructure system by 2025. In September 2021, Guizhou Province proposed seven major measures for new infrastructure, including the creation of computing hub nodes and the deployment of new network infrastructure. Further progress has been made in new infrastructure construction, which has become an important strategic support for local governments to achieve high-quality leapfrog development.

Overall, since 2018, China has carried out systematic theoretical research and extensive practical exploration of new infrastructure, which has risen from the initial stage of only conceptual local demonstration to the stage of comprehensive development with a clear implementation path. At present, the key areas and key links of new infrastructure present the following characteristics and typical characteristics of The Times.

First, remarkable progress has been made in the construction of information infrastructure. According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of 2022, China has built and opened a total of 2.312,000 5G base stations, accounting for more than 60% of the world's total base stations; The number of 5G base stations per 10,000 people reached 16.4, an increase of 6.3 over the end of last year. With the continuous maturity of information technologies and applications such as network technology, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, mobile communication network services have gradually shifted to the application expansion of three scenario-based industries characterized by end-to-end network high speed, low delay, high reliability and large connection capability, and the integration service capability has been continuously improved and the customization capability has been continuously improved.