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.

The second is the rapid development of computing power and data services. By the end of June 2022, the total scale of data center racks in use in China exceeded 5.9 million standard racks, the scale of servers was about 20 million, and the total scale of computing power exceeded 150EFlops (15,000 floating point operations per second), ranking second in the world. As China continues to promote digital transformation in various regions and industries, industrial collaboration continues to deepen, and an internationally competitive computing industry ecology such as computing infrastructure, computing platforms, and computing services has initially taken shape. At the same time, China has made every effort to build a national computing power network system, and with the advancement of the "East Number West computing" project, the east and West have continuously improved cross-regional computing power scheduling, intra-regional computing power coordination, and multi-cloud collaborative computing power connectivity scheduling.

According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, emerging businesses such as data centers, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things have developed rapidly, with a total business revenue of 307.2 billion yuan in 2022, an increase of 32.4% over the previous year, and the proportion of telecom business revenue increased from 16.1% in the previous year to 19.4%.

Third, promote the vigorous development of the digital economy. New infrastructure is the main carrier of the development of the digital economy, and it has continuously achieved breakthrough results in enabling the transformation of production, life, governance methods and service models. New economies such as the service economy and the experience economy have become an important force driving growth. With the acceleration of new infrastructure, there will be more and more digital ecology, and the application value will be higher and higher, thus stimulating more economic vitality and releasing more consumer demand. Relevant data show that the scale of China's digital economy has reached 45.5 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world and becoming a new engine of economic growth.

Fourth, all types of investment and financing entities are actively involved. New infrastructure projects generally have the characteristics of large initial investment scale and long investment recovery cycle. In order to fully mobilize the participation of social capital, China has introduced innovative financial instruments and other important financing channels to supplement the capital of major projects, including new infrastructure. By the end of November 2022, more than 2,700 projects supported by two batches of financial instruments totaling 739.9 billion yuan had all started construction, mainly to support the construction of major projects such as transportation, energy, water conservancy, and new infrastructure. At the same time, the "Notice on Supporting Central Enterprises to issue scientific and technological innovation corporate bonds" proposed to support central enterprises to carry out infrastructure REITs pilot, focusing on supporting transportation, energy, water conservancy, ecological environmental protection and 5G, industrial Internet and other new infrastructure projects to issue REITs. Market players actively participate in new infrastructure, nearly 70 central enterprises more than 700 sub-enterprises in the field of new infrastructure to increase layout, "14th Five-Year Plan" during the planning of more than 1,300 investment projects. At present, China is actively promoting demonstration applications for key regions and industries, thus forming a virtuous cycle of continuous investment in new infrastructure and innovation iteration.

In the future, the construction of new infrastructure with data as an important production factor can reconstruct the original production mode and production relations, and cultivate a strong driving force for economic and social development. With the construction and application of new infrastructure, giving full play to the traction role of frontier layout will release more economic momentum and consumer demand, and have an all-round driving effect on the real economy.

Information infrastructure has developed by leaps and bounds

Wan Jinbo (Researcher, Institute of Science and Technology Strategy Consulting, Chinese Academy of Sciences) : Information infrastructure is an important part of the new infrastructure, which refers to the infrastructure generated based on the evolution of the new generation of information technology, including the communication network infrastructure represented by 5G/6G, the Internet of Things, the industrial Internet, the satellite Internet, etc., and the new technology infrastructure represented by artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and blockchain. Computing power infrastructure represented by data centers and intelligent computing centers. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has deeply implemented the strategy of network power and national big data strategy, achieved remarkable results in the construction of information infrastructure, and highlighted the role of data empowerment and innovation-driven multiplier effect.

First, the scale of information and communication network construction is leading the world. With the deepening implementation of the "Broadband China" strategy, China has built the world's largest optical fiber and mobile broadband network. By the end of 2022, the total length of optical cable lines had reached 59.58 million kilometers, a net increase of 4.77 million kilometers over the end of the previous year, and the network capacity continued to increase. The number of 10G PON ports with gigabit network service capability reached 15.23 million, a net increase of 7.371 million over the end of the previous year, and a total of 110 cities across the country reached the gigabit city construction standard. The application of next-generation Internet technologies is accelerating, the scale and application level of the network is leading the world, and the network infrastructure is fully evolving and upgrading to IPv6, and the number of active IPv6 users currently reaches 697 million.

Second, the accelerated development of computing infrastructure. The implementation of the "East Count and West count" project has been accelerated, the overall layout of the national integrated big data center system has been completed, the construction of eight national computing hub nodes has started, and nearly 70 new data center projects will be started in 2022, with a new data center scale of about 1.5 million standard racks. By the end of 2022, the number of data center racks provided by basic telecommunications enterprises to the public reached 818,000, a net increase of 84,000 over the end of the previous year, of which the number of racks in the central and western regions accounted for 21.9%, and the situation of excessive concentration of data centers in the east has been improved. The number of racks of self-used data centers of basic telecommunications enterprises increased by 160,000 net compared with the end of the previous year, and the capabilities of network, connectivity, computing power, data, security and other integrated services were enhanced, laying the foundation for providing high-quality new digital services. The national civil space infrastructure system has been basically completed, the Beidou-3 global navigation satellite system has been put into operation, and the satellite remote sensing system has formed a global observation capability.

Third, the capacity of information and communication services has been greatly improved. China's mobile communication has realized the leap from "3G breakthrough" to "4G synchronization" and then to "5G leadership", and the vision demand research, key technology research and development, and international exchange and cooperation in the 6G field have accelerated. The Internet penetration rate increased from 42.1% in 2012 to 74.4% in June 2022, and the number of Internet users reached 1.051 billion. In 2022, the total number of telephone users in China will reach 1.863 billion, including 1.683 billion mobile phone users, with a penetration rate of 119.2 units per 100 people, and 561 million 5G mobile phone users. For small and medium-sized enterprises, broadband and dedicated lines have been reduced for four consecutive years, yielding profits of more than 700 billion yuan. Compared to 2012, the average download rate of broadband networks has increased by nearly 40 times, and the average tariff per unit of traffic of mobile networks has decreased by more than 95%. The information and communication service capabilities of small and medium-sized cities in the central and western regions have been further improved.

China's information infrastructure construction has made great progress, but compared with the high-quality development needs of the digital economy and the international advanced level, there is still a big gap: the current systematic and international industrial Internet platform vacancy, cloud computing infrastructure and application scenarios are still in the incubation period, and application scenarios are relatively insufficient; The new generation of information technology is in the process of constantly updating and optimizing and adjusting. The construction, operation, management and maintenance cost of information infrastructure is high, and the participation of social capital is not high. There are shortcomings in key core technologies, the potential high value-added of the industry is difficult to stimulate, and the superposition effect and multiplier effect of the integration of advanced manufacturing and the digital economy are greatly reduced.

In the future, the forward-looking layout of information infrastructure construction, we must accelerate the construction of high-speed ubiquitous, heaven and earth, cloud network integration, intelligent and agile, green and low-carbon, safe and controllable intelligent comprehensive digital infrastructure, comprehensively improve the digitization level of infrastructure, expand the information high-tech industry, strategic emerging industries and future industries investment, continue to open up new areas of development and new tracks.

First, appropriately advance the deployment of information infrastructure. Accelerate the construction of a national integrated big data center system, build green and intelligent national hub nodes and data center clusters, and improve the national data element infrastructure. Accelerate the construction of gigabit optical networks, set up a number of new international communications gateways, and comprehensively promote the commercial deployment of IPv6. Build an open innovation platform for artificial intelligence public computing power to serve the development of small and medium-sized enterprises with low-cost computing power. We will build spatial information infrastructure and international sharing infrastructure, advance the major Beidou industrialization project, build an intensive and efficient satellite remote sensing system that integrates private and commercial planning, and boost the development of satellite Internet and spatial information industries.

Second, we will increase investment support. We will give full play to the central government's guiding and driving role in investment, make good use of medium - and long-term loans, special bonds of local governments, and policy-oriented development financial instruments, and increase the enthusiasm of private capital to participate in investment. At the same time, relax the entry threshold, optimize the market competition environment, and attract private capital and overseas capital to participate in the operation of new infrastructure. We will increase investment in information networks in the central and western regions, support small and medium-sized cities in upgrading networks and building cloud computing facilities, and strengthen weak areas.

Third, we will accelerate research on key core information technologies. Relying on the construction of information infrastructure, we will build a digital innovation ecosystem and open source community, strengthen digital technology innovation, and firmly grasp the initiative of digital economy development. We will improve the layout of the national computing power network and build a distributed national data center cluster. We will prudently advance the development of national civil space, 5G/6G, and optical fiber networks, promote the integration of new technologies such as space technology and artificial intelligence into infrastructure, foster application scenarios for key regions and industries, and coordinate the development of new technologies, new models, new forms of business, and new industries. We will strengthen forward-looking legislation on emerging technologies, and explore and improve ethical norms and standards for the research, development and application of emerging technologies.

Integrated infrastructure development enables thousands of industries

Tao Yuan (Deputy Director of Policy Research Institute of China Industrial Internet Research Institute) : Integrated infrastructure is an important means to make full use of data elements and information technology, transform and improve the level of traditional infrastructure, and promote high-quality development in various fields. In recent years, China's vigorous efforts to promote integrated infrastructure development have yielded positive results. New technologies and new forms and models of business have developed vigorously, and remarkable results have been achieved in empowering thousands of industries, injecting strong momentum into economic and social development and the improvement of people's livelihood.

Construction of integrated infrastructure systems was accelerated. The construction of integrated infrastructure has promoted the interconnection of infrastructure in various fields and achieved high-quality development of the entire infrastructure system. The construction of the national industrial Internet network, platform, security and other systems has been continuously improved, low-delay, high-reliability, and wide-coverage network facilities have been initially completed, the identification analysis system centered on the national top nodes has developed on a large scale, and the national, provincial, and enterprise three-level coordinated technical monitoring service system has basically taken shape. There are more than 240 industrial Internet platforms with certain industry and regional influence, with key platforms connecting more than 80 million units (sets) of industrial equipment and serving more than 1.6 million industrial enterprises. Smart energy construction continues to deepen, as of November 2022, the country's largest new energy centralized control center has accumulated access to 86 photovoltaic sites, access capacity of nearly 11GW, and access to more than 20 million data measurement points. We made positive progress in building a new type of smart city. Steady progress was made in building an urban information modeling platform and an operational management service platform. A national digital monitoring platform for spatial planning was basically completed, and construction of digital twin river basins, water networks, and water conservancy projects was accelerated.

The integration of infrastructure to support industrial transformation to deep expansion. The broad scope of integration infrastructure is integrating into thousands of industries, giving birth to more formats and models, and accelerating the development process of the industry. The industrial Internet has been fully integrated into 45 national economic categories, and a large number of pillar industries of the national economy such as aircraft, ships, automobiles, and mining have carried out "5G+ Industrial Internet" innovation practices, and as of November 2022, more than 4,000 projects are under construction nationwide.