Youth play key role in digital economy

Young entrepreneurs are expected to play a bigger role in helping implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, promoting international economic and trade cooperation and facilitating the development of the digital economy, participants said at the RCEP Youth Dialogue on Friday.

The digital economy is a key area of trade and investment under the RCEP agreement, which has also created favorable conditions for bolstering the growth of digital trade among RCEP member countries, said Li Xiaodong, founder of the Fuxi Institution and research fellow at the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Li noted that young entrepreneurs have become the main force in developing the digital economy while highlighting their significance in strengthening international cooperation in the realm of the digital economy and promoting regional trade growth.

Xu Xiujun, researcher and director of international political economy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics, said young entrepreneurs have international vision, dare to expand cross-border investment and trade business, and boast the awareness of innovation and competition.

"They will play a positive role in promoting the liberalization and facilitation of investment and trade, bolstering the cross-border flow of personnel, goods, capital and data of RCEP member states, as well as exploring new ways and areas of cooperation and cultivating new growth points, including digital economy, green energy and modern agriculture," Xu said.

The RCEP agreement, which took effect on Jan 1, covers 15 Asia-Pacific economies: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It has created the world's largest free trade bloc by promoting regional economic integration through tariff concessions and other trade and investment liberalization and facilitation measures.

The RCEP region covers a market of 2.2 billion people, or nearly 30 percent of the world's population, with a combined GDP of $26.2 trillion or about 30 percent of global GDP, accounting for nearly 28 percent of global trade.

The implementation of the RCEP agreement has not only brought about huge opportunities for investment and trade but also important opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, said Kuang Xianming, vice-president of the China Institute for Reform and Development.

Kuang said young entrepreneurs have huge potential in driving innovation and entrepreneurship among the RCEP member countries and they should make use of their advantages in technological innovation in fields like environmental protection, new energy, new materials, cross-border e-commerce, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence.

With the blossoming of 5G, big data, artificial intelligence and other innovative digital technologies, the digital economy is gradually becoming the integral driving force for economic growth.

Kuang called for efforts to speed up the construction of digital infrastructure, expand international cooperation in the digital economy and emerging industries, and formulate measures to support the innovations and entrepreneurship of young people.