Promoting Growth with 'Digital': Beijing Sets Benchmarks for Digital City

On July 4, the 2026 Global Digital Economy Conference achievements press conference was held at the Beijing National Convention Center. Photo by Wang Ziru.

Beijing, July 5 (China News Service) -- (Reporters Lyu Shaowei, Xu Jing) At the 2026 Global Digital Economy Conference themed "Building a Digital-Friendly City -- Smart and Borderless, Connecting the World Digitally", nearly 40 high-level delegations and over a thousand industry guests from around the world engaged in in-depth exchanges and dialogues on core issues in key areas such as artificial intelligence, digital governance, and data elements.

The conference was held in Beijing from July 2 to 5, reaching new highs in both international coverage and industry linkage scale, which also demonstrates that the value of the digital economy is increasingly prominent in more industries, and the development of the digital economy has become a consensus in more and more countries and regions.

During the conference, several major achievements were released, including the "Global Digital Economy City Development Report", the "Global Digital Friendly City Evaluation Guidelines", and the "2026 Global Digital Economy Lighthouse Cases", providing a set of measurable, replicable, and scalable guidelines for digital-friendly development.

Among them, the "Global Digital Economy City Development Report" pointed out that "digital friendliness" is an important value direction for future urban digital transformation. The release of the "Global Digital Friendly City Evaluation Guidelines" marks the first establishment of a unified and universal international evaluation standard for digital friendliness in this field. The solicitation of the "2026 Global Digital Economy Lighthouse Cases" covered over 60 countries across six continents, ultimately selecting 13 benchmark cases from 308 valid project applications. Multiple local practices in Beijing, such as the "Jingban" intelligent government collaborative office platform and the Beijing "Vehicle-Road-Cloud" demonstration application, were successfully selected.

The blue book "Beijing Digital Economy Development Report (2025-2026)" released at the conference's achievements press conference stated that in 2025, Beijing's digital economy added value exceeded 2.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%, accounting for 46.4% of GDP. It ranked second in the global digital economy benchmark city index evaluation, firmly in the "global leading cities" category.

This year's conference added three international institutions as co-organizers: the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the World Data Organization, and the Global Digital Economy City Alliance, with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the International Trade Centre as supporting organizations. The United Nations Development Programme's Digital-Friendly and Sustainable Digital Economy Innovation Lab was officially established in Beijing. During the conference, country-specific innovation cooperation projects were inaugurated, and the Beijing Overseas Base Online Comprehensive Service Platform was launched, providing full-chain support for enterprises to explore global markets. Brand forums such as the Future Industry Conference introduced nearly 20 industry rules and standards, promoting the friendly development of the digital industry.

UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Associate Administrator Xu Haoliang stated during the conference that Beijing's leading advantages in the global digital economy innovation field would be fully leveraged. At the same time, under the cooperation framework, more inclusive and efficient digital transformation implementation paths would be explored.

From standard setting to factor activation, from industrial leapfrogging to global collaboration, from governance upgrading to public welfare, Beijing is leveraging a systematic "digital methodology" to drive all-round digital transformation of the city. The multiple achievements of this year's conference are not only a phased answer sheet for Beijing's construction of a global digital economy benchmark city but also provide a reference for global digital city construction that combines technological rationality with humanistic warmth. (End)

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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