China Creates Regulations On Data Exchange As A National Strategic Resource

JAKARTA - China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) calls for improved big data cross-border security management by 2025, in a five-year plan published on Tuesday, November 30, as quoted by Reuters.

The plan, which builds on China's 14th Five-Year Plan published earlier this year, comes as the country has been pushing its regulatory framework for data and technology. It reaffirms data as a “factor of production” and a “national strategic resource”.

The plan contains six main tasks, including increasing the "marketization" of data, increasing computing power, and playing a major role in developing global technology standards.

The plan also calls for strengthened cross-border data flow management and more support for open source initiatives. The scale of China's big data industry will exceed 3 trillion yuan ($470.79 billion) by the end of 2025, MIIT estimates.

Beijing implemented two major laws this year - the Personal Information Protection Act and the Data Security Act, which regulate how companies and organizations can store and transfer data.