China’s Role in the Digital Age Recognized by Both East and West – China Economic Net

By Wu Siya

BEIJING, July 3 (China Economic Net) C Should the future of the digital economy lie in the East or the West?

Faced with such a question, Markus Staeblein, Senior Vice President of NXP Semiconductors, answered without hesitation: “Only when the East and the West work together will we be able to create a better digital economy of tomorrow, in which China will definitely play a key role.”

Speaking at the fourth Global Digital Economy Conference 2024 (CDEC) held in Beijing on July 2, the senior vice president outlined a roadmap for the smart and digital development of logistics and supply chain.

Markus Staeblein gave a speech at CDEC (photo/Wu Siya)

“More than 2 billion tons of waste is generated in logistics worldwide every year, and one third of food is wasted along the entire chain from farm produce to the table, so the high efficiency and sustainability brought by digitalization are inevitable. The speed of development of e-commerce in China has attracted the attention of the world, at the same time, the total carbon dioxide emissions of e-commerce companies nationwide exceed 50 million tons. So what has China done? The National Development and Reform Commission of China has begun to pay great attention to this area and has proposed a series of plans such as the Green Guide for e-commerce activities. NXP, as a leader in the global semiconductor industry that has been closely cooperating with China for decades, is also working together to accelerate the transformation of intelligent logistics.”

The United Arab Emirates, which became an early strategic partner of China in the digital economy through the Digital Belt and Road Initiative, has launched a plan for broader digital cooperation with China.

Hamdan Zakaria Doleh, Chairman of the China Innovation Centre in the United Arab Emirates (Photo/Wu Siya)

“In the UAE, the contribution of digital economy to GDP is expected to double by 2023, while also having a significant impact on our non-oil GDP. Dubai is positioning itself to become one of the global hubs of Internet 3.0 technologies, including Metaverse and blockchain. As we all know, China has both the world’s leading e-commerce industry and the strongest manufacturing industry, so it is not only the world’s largest digital economy but also the world’s largest manufacturing powerhouse. Currently, China and the UAE are in a comprehensive strategic partnership. We can fully leverage our complementary advantages and conduct comprehensive cooperation in many fields, such as e-commerce, transportation, public health, finance,” said Hamdan Zakaria Doleh, Chairman of China Innovation Centre in the UAE.

“At present, the Belt and Road Initiative has become an indispensable vehicle for logistics cooperation between China and the Middle East. More and more Chinese digital companies are also deploying digital infrastructure, data centers and the like in the Middle East. In terms of mobile payments, 5G networks and artificial intelligence, Huawei and many other leading Chinese companies are vigorously deploying themselves in the Middle East market. In such a flourishing era, we are willing to play a catalytic role to fully promote digital cooperation between our two countries, better serve Chinese companies to become global, and allow UAE companies to enter the market.”

It is worth mentioning that the Global Digital Economy White Paper (2024) released on the same day shows that in 2023, the total digital economy of five countries, including the United States, China, Germany, Japan and South Korea, will exceed $33 trillion, an increase of over 8% year-on-year. At the same time, by the end of May this year, China has built a total of 3.837 million 5G base stations, accounting for more than 60% of the world’s total 5G base stations.