On 12 January 2020 the SCO Secretariat hosted a presentation of the Thousand Cities Strategic Algorithms (TCSA) on the topic: National Data Brain: Driving Societal Stability and Economic Revitalisation.
The goal of the event was to familiarise the audience with the National Data Centre project, which is designed to create a platform to integrate data on financial, lending and tax policy. It was attended by representatives of Chinese government agencies, business circles and the diplomatic corps of the SCO family, as well as ASEAN and Arab League countries, accredited in China.
In his speech at the event, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov pointed out the acceleration in digital transformation during the coronavirus pandemic. He emphasised that, with their vast potential for developing digitalisation and artificial intelligence, the SCO countries are paying much attention to promoting relevant issues. Mr Norov told the audience about the regulations adopted by the SCO countries in this area, which are designed to promote digital transformation for reaching inclusive economic development in the SCO space and removing the disproportions in digital progress between cities and rural areas.
Mr Norov noted that the SCO member countries are also paying much attention to developing digitisation and artificial intelligence at national levels. He emphasised the importance of China's proposals, which is one of the world's leaders in this area, at the SCO summit in November 2021. These proposals are aimed at promoting high-tech cooperation and introducing technology advancements into production. Mr Norov also emphasised the importance of the initiative by President of China Xi Jinping on holding a China-SCO forum on the digital economy in Chongqing in 2021.
The SCO Secretary-General summed up his speech by saying that stronger digital interconnection may open new prospects for economic progress by forming new growing points and enhancing the SCO's investment appeal. He noted that the promotion of practical cooperation in this area meets the interests of the SCO countries by enhancing their technological competitiveness and socioeconomic wellbeing. He expressed the hope that the TCSA presentation would make a constructive contribution to the exchange of experience in using fintech solutions for central banks with a view to ensuring macroeconomic stability in the SCO countries.
Chairman of the TCSA Board Zheng Zhijun reported that the company is the world's first professional organisation that helps cooperating countries create national data centres in accordance with their national interests. He believes this will facilitate sustainable economic growth and help priority economic industries become more competitive.
Zheng Zhijun noted that the company has changed the methods of transmitting, storing, computing and using data and designed a logical, profitable and highly effective structure for a national central data processor. He said this digital structure could be continuously streamlined in an interactive format. Like computer and mobile telephone chips it can reduce the costs of computing capacity in processing data in geometrical progression and increase the computing potential of data on the same scale throughout the country.
Zheng Zhijun noted that the digital model of the macroeconomic system has enjoyed broad recognition from experts at the World Bank, the IMF, Stanford University and Columbia University. At present, the TCSA is conducting talks on this with central governments and central banks in more than 50 countries.
