Digital News

　　According to the information from the Ministry of Commerce on September 24, the ministry, together with seven other government departments, recently issued the Guidelines on Vigorously Developing Digital Consumption for a Better Life in the Digital Era (hereinafter referred to as the Guidelines). The Guidelines aims to fully implement the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, leverage the strengths of China’s enormous market, expand the diversified digital consumption supply, innovate and enrich digital consumption scenarios, promote a higher-level dynamic balance between digital supply and demand, stimulate and boost socio-economic vitality, and work together to create a better life in the digital era.

　　The Guidelines calls for coordinated efforts on both the supply and demand sides, putting forward 14 tasks and measures across four key areas. First, enrich the digital consumption supply. This includes expanding consumption of digital products, enhancing digital service consumption, fostering innovation in digital content, and broadening consumption channels, thus stimulating new consumption demand through fresh digital offerings. Second, foster and strengthen market players in digital consumption. This involves enhancing the innovation capabilities of digital consumption businesses, empowering small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve digital development, supporting the growth of digital consumption businesses, and continuously boosting their internal drive and innovative vitality. Third, optimize the support system for digital consumption. This includes building digital consumption platforms, improving the express delivery and logistics network, enhancing the convenience of payments, strengthening guarantees for factor inputs, increasing fiscal and financial support, and fostering an efficient and collaborative digital consumption ecosystem to lay a solid foundation for the development of digital consumption. Fourth, foster a favorable environment for digital consumption. This includes conducting consumption-related promotional activities, advancing international exchanges and cooperation, ensuring regulated and healthy development, and coordinating promotion with regulation as well as domestic with international efforts, thereby creating a better environment to drive high-quality growth of digital consumption.

　　Chen Xiaohua, Executive Director of the Joint Laboratory of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told Securities Daily that the Guidelines demonstrates profound insight and strong determination to leverage technological innovation to drive consumption upgrading. By encouraging enterprises to accelerate R&D and innovation, they inject strong momentum into the digital products market. Expanding the effective supply of AI-powered terminal products is not only an active response to cutting-edge technological trends but also opens the door for consumers to a future of intelligent living. Once the consumption potential of new products, such as AI-powered smartphones, computers, intelligent robots, wearable devices, and desktop 3D printers, is fully unleashed, it will significantly broaden consumer choices and improve both quality of life and efficiency.

　　Regarding the improvement of express delivery and logistics networks, the Guidelines emphasizes promoting the development of smart logistics and encouraging regions with the necessary conditions to develop unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) feeder services and last-mile delivery in an orderly way. It calls for accelerating the research and formulation of standards for autonomous delivery vehicles, UAVs, and other related technologies, strengthening delivery terminals such as smart pick-up cabinets and parcel lockers, and providing support for R&D, new product market access, and product trials. The Guidelines also encourages localities to upgrade county-level e-commerce public service centers and advance the digital transformation of outlets in counties, towns, and villages, while guiding e-commerce platforms to enhance integrated fulfillment systems and collaborate with physical stores to improve the digital and intelligent services of last-mile delivery.

　　Yuan Shuai, Deputy Secretary-General of the Z-Park Internet of Things Industry Alliance, told Securities Daily that promoting smart logistics is the key driving force behind improving express delivery and logistics systems. As a key component of smart logistics, unmanned delivery has received strong policy support, providing significant momentum for the transformation and upgrading of the entire logistics industry. Encouraging regions with the necessary conditions to develop UAV feeder services and last-mile delivery in an orderly manner is a highly forward-looking decision.

　　Yuan Shuai noted that UAVs in feeder services can bypass geographical barriers, quickly navigating complex terrains like mountains and rivers, significantly reducing transportation time and boosting logistics efficiency. In the last-mile delivery phase, UAVs can deliver goods directly to consumers’ designated locations. This is particularly effective in remote or difficult-to-reach areas, addressing the “last-mile” delivery challenge and enhancing the consumer shopping experience.

　　The Guidelines requires all relevant entities to fully recognize the crucial role of digital consumption in driving consumption upgrading, expanding effective investment, and fostering industrial innovation. It emphasizes strengthening organizational leadership, coordination, and policy support, improving long-term promotion mechanisms, promptly summarizing and promoting innovative measures and best practices, and promoting the effective implementation of all measures.