Digital economy boosts SZ's high-quality development

Shenzhen’s flourishing digital economy is giving wing to the city’s high-quality development by empowering the traditional economy while achieving high growth in its core industries, a Xinhua report said yesterday.

The number of digital economy-related enterprises in Shenzhen has increased significantly with a wide range of innovations being commercialized and more than 1 million jobs being created, the report said. The added value of the core digital economy industries now accounts for more than 30% of Shenzhen’s GDP.

A production line at smartphone giant Honor’s industrial park in Pingshan District in this Feb. 22 photo. Xinhua

A recent field research of smartphone giant Honor’s industrial park in Pingshan District by a Xinhua reporter showed 75% of the assembly lines are automated, all the key facilities on the production lines have become computer-numeric controlled, and 95% of the key facilities are networked.

“With digital technologies, we can realize the full-cycle tracking and management of product quality. It helps to improve production efficiency and ensure product quality. Our shipments have continued to climb,” said a manager with Honor’s supply chain management department who was quoted in the report.

A bird's-eye view of smartphone giant Honor’s industrial park in Pingshan District in this Feb. 22 photo. Xinhua

Digital economy innovations are also injecting new vitality into the traditional manufacturing industry. Foxconn’s Shenzhen factories can sustain normal operation even with all the lights out, while Shenzhen iFashion Cloud Technology Co., with the help of its self-developed intelligent try-on facility, can deliver customized clothing to users within a week.

Constant technological innovations have enabled phone maker Shenzhen Transsion Holdings to dominate the smartphone market in Africa for years, while Shenzhen Mengyilian Apparel Co. saw a surge in overseas orders after it rolled out tech-enabled mass design services.

Tecno, a sub-brand of Transsion, unveils its first-ever foldable smartphone at a special launch event during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023, the largest mobile event in the world, in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday. The phone is the world’s first left-right foldable smartphone to be powered by MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 9000+ processor. Xinhua

With its strengths in digital technology and connectivity, Tencent Cloud has created more than 400 customized solutions for more than 10,000 companies, including Chinese companies exploring overseas markets and foreign companies seeking to enter the Chinese market, enabling them to serve a total of more than 2 million enterprise customers worldwide.

Visitors show interest in a booth of Tencent Cloud during the 5th Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, in this July 23 photo. Xinhua

New technologies are also creating some new business formats, which in turn have brought about new occupations. New occupations such as robot operators, drone pilots, cloud-based virtual network security officers of unmanned delivery vehicles, data taggers and driverless car security operators have emerged in the city because of the digital economy-induced new business formats. Roughly 1.6 million people across the city are being employed by businesses of new formats, according to the report.

The online delivery platform Meituan recently won approval for commercial drone deliveries, which propelled the company to recruit drone pilots.

             A food delivery drone flies over a delivery pick-up station at the Galaxy World in Longgang District. Courtesy of Meituan

Chen Zeshen, who graduated from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Shenzhen Polytechnic in 2022, would probably work on a production line of a carmaker if there were no such new occupations. He instead has become a cloud-based virtual network security officer at Meituan.

“This job has broadened my horizon. I won’t limit my vision to this position and in the future, I want to try algorithms and other technical research and development work,” Chen said.

The inaugural ceremony of the Shenzhen Data Exchange on Nov. 15. Xinhua

Aiming high, the city has worked to enhance the business environment for the digital economy. In November 2022, the city inaugurated the Shenzhen Data Exchange with the majority of data sellers being technology companies, injecting fresh impetus into the sector. In the same month, the city’s regulations on the digital economy industry took effect, which are steering the sector toward even higher quality development.

Guo Ziping, director of Shenzhen’s development and reform commission, said that in the future, Shenzhen will rely on the data exchange to form a globally leading ecology for further digital economy development.