By MKPE ABANG
Chinese President, Xi Jinping, further made good his government’s focus and target to stand as a partner for growth globally when he called on Chinese technology companies to promote innovation-driven development by taking on opportunities provided by the Internet and world’s hasten growth especially in emerging markets.
President Xi, who spoke December 16 while visiting an expo in the river town of Wuzhen in east China’s Zhejiang Province, with the theme “Light of the Internet,” which has on display latest Internet technologies and products in China and abroad, remarked that as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, the Internet has brought huge changes to people’s work and life and promoted innovation and development in many fields.
The exhibition which is part of the Second World Internet Conference is holding September 16 through 18.
According to President Xi, businesses should be encouraged to use the Internet to transform their model of development and make innovations in technology, service and business model, he said.
He called for implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development by utilising important opportunities brought by the Internet.
The exhibition has display areas for development concepts, “Internet plus,” innovation and others. It attracted nearly 260 Chinese and foreign firms.
Search engine Baidu’s booth features a billboard explaining how its online translation service is helping communication between Eurasian countries as they strengthen regional infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative being led by China.
In some countries, less than 7 percent of the population has Internet access compared with the global average of 46 percent, rising to 80 percent in some developed countries, according to Zhao Houlin, secretary of the International Telecommunication Union.
“The essence of the Internet is connectivity, and herein lies the value of information. We need better IT infrastructure for information to travel smoothly,” said Xi in his opening address to the conference on Wednesday.
“Only in this way can we narrow the digital divide between countries, regions and communities and ensure full flow of information.”
Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, also visited the expo.
Chinese Internet companies are keen to capitalize on demand abroad and help close these gaps. Alibaba has plans for a global e-commerce system called E-WTO. Phone maker Xiaomi is studying the African market after success in Brazil and Indonesia. Phone designer APUS is marketing simple cellphone operation systems in developing countries.
Other countries in the Belt and Road network are excited about the opportunities made clear by Xi’s speech. For example, Valeriy M. Matsel, consul-general of the Republic of Belarus in Shanghai, is seeking more investment and cooperation from Chinese companies.
IT firms Huawei and ZTE already have branches in a Sino-Belarus industrial park, and Matsel, who recently met with Alibaba executives, hopes products from Belarus can be sold in China and worldwide through similar e-commerce platforms.
“China is expert in information infrastructure development and Internet technology, which are much needed in developing countries. The combination of China’s ‘Internet Plus’ strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative will change the way in which countries cooperate,” Matsel said.