Unlocking the power of data
In computer science, data is not limited to numbers—it refers to any form of symbolic information that can be entered into a computer and processed by programs, including numbers, text, images and audio. Data has been hailed as the “oil of the digital era.”
In October 2019, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee recognized data as the fifth production factor, alongside land, labor, capital and technology, for the first time.
“Data is a strategic asset in the new era, a new engine driving social and economic transformation,” Li Changxiu, Deputy Director of the Xinjiang Digital Development Bureau, said. “Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has attached greater importance to the development of the data sector and has elevated it to a national strategy.”
Li said Xinjiang has closely followed national policy, using reforms related to the market-oriented allocation of data elements as a guide and the Data Elements Multiply competition as a key vehicle to activate the value of data resources.
Data elements refer to electronic data resources that contribute value when used in production and business activities. These resources can be used repeatedly by multiple parties, generating multiplying effects and serving as foundational strategic assets in the digital economy.
“Data elements multiply,” a concept introduced in China’s digital-economy push, highlights the multiplier effect produced when data is integrated with traditional production factors, creating new value and boosting efficiency.
The value of data lies in what is created through its integration with other production factors, Pei Lei, Deputy General Manager of the Silk Road Cooperation Center at the Shanghai Data Exchange, explained.
Since 2023, the national and Xinjiang regional authorities have issued a series of policy documents to advance the Data Elements Multiply three-year action plan, with the national competition as an important initiative of it.
Replicable models
In the Xinjiang leg of the 2025 Data Elements Multiply competition, several participants stood out. A project by the Xinjiang Petroleum Administration Bureau Co. Ltd. and another led by Xinjiang Xinqiao Intelligent Water Co. Ltd., in collaboration with other partners, excelled in the national finals, winning second prize in the Open Innovation category and the Agriculture category, respectively.
“After 70 years of oil exploration and development in Xinjiang, we have accumulated petabytes of data,” Jiang Li, a senior engineer at the Digital Intelligence Technology Co. of the Xinjiang branch of PetroChina, China’s largest oil and gas producer, said. “Seventy years ago, our predecessors opened a new chapter in China’s underground oil extraction. Today, drawing on the workflows of subsurface oil production, we have built a whole-process ‘data petroleum’ extraction system that spans from exploration and drilling to refining, collection, transportation and sales.”
By unlocking this vast reserve of “data petroleum,” the project aims to uncover previously overlooked data assets worth billions and reshape the development model of the energy industry.
Focusing on real production needs, the Xinjiang branch of PetroChina has already developed two categories of core data products. These have been listed on the Beijing International Data Exchange, and completed their first transactions.
Xinjiang Xinqiao Intelligent Water Co. Ltd. has built a multi-dimensional digital and core technical architecture for full-chain precision management of cotton production, using an integrated “sky-ground-crop” data collection network.
“On the ground, sensors such as soil moisture probes and pest-monitoring lamps capture real-time information on soil humidity and pest species and population. In the air, drones equipped with multispectral sensors collect images of crop growth and irrigation uniformity. Smart monitoring devices simultaneously acquire regional meteorological and terrain data. Altogether, we gather comprehensive indicators on soil, crops and the environment,” Wang Kan, Chairman of the company, explained. With this integrated digital system, farmers can water and fertilize their cotton fields with a simple tap on their smartphone.
After the project was implemented, cotton yield increased by 15 percent, while water consumption dropped by more than 20 percent. “We have already built 16,700 hectares of smart farmland in Aksu and Hetian (Hotan) prefectures and plan to expand to 26,700 hectares next year, reaching 66,700 hectares within three years,” Wang said.
The Digital Silk Road Xinjiang Industrial Investment Group Co. Ltd. has participated in the competition for two consecutive years. In 2024, its project, Innovative Applications of Public Data in Grassroots Governance, won first prize in the Urban Governance category of the Xinjiang leg.
The integrated information management system developed by the enterprise has reduced community-level data reporting by 77 percent and has now been rolled out across nine prefectures in the region.
Empowering industries
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, convened in October, called for advancing the Digital China Initiative, with a focus on refining the foundational systems for data as a factor of production, fostering an integrated national data market characterized by openness, sharing and security, and advancing the development and utilization of data resources.
“Leveraging Hami’s geographical advantages, we aim to fully tap into its rich data resources, and better serve and integrate into the unified national market,” Pan Xinmin, General Manager of the Zhengzhou Data Exchange, said.
The Hami Operations Center of the exchange, established in April, has built trust, value and regulatory chains for cross-regional data flows. It has formed a replicable, verifiable and credibility-enhancing rule system for the market-oriented allocation of data elements across Xinjiang, ensuring that data is “supplied, distributed and used in an efficient and secure manner.”
“The digital era has arrived. AI has an enormous appetite for data, and data will unlock a trillion-yuan market,” Pan added.
As of October, the Hami Operations Center had registered more than 100 data service providers, listed over 200 data products and recorded more than 30 million yuan ($4.23 million) in transactions. It has also completed multiple pilot projects, exploring a replicable pathway toward the monetization of data.
Xinjiang Coal Trading Center Co. Ltd.’s project Innovation-Driven Data Empowerment: Building a Smart Supply Chain Service Platform for the Coal Industry won first prize in the Business and Trade category in the Xinjiang leg of this year’s Data Elements Multiply competition.
“More than 4,000 coal mines, traders, warehouses and related enterprises have used the platform. It aggregates key business data—contracts, orders and inventories—in real time while coordinating with local development and reform commissions, tax authorities and banks to enhance enterprise credit standing. Nearly 1 million new data entries are added daily,” Zhang Kui, Deputy General Manager of the company, said. The platform’s four scenario-based applications now cover the entire coal industry chain.
In 2024, the platform facilitated 65.97 million tons of coal trading online, with a combined transaction value of 18.36 billion yuan ($2.6 billion). Working with banks, it enabled 50 million yuan ($7.04 million) in loans based on data-driven credit assessments. Smart scheduling and intelligent warehousing, powered by AI route optimization and Internet of Things monitoring, reduced transportation costs by 8 million yuan ($1.12 million) and warehousing costs by 5 million yuan ($704,000).
At the closing ceremony of the Xinjiang leg of the 2025 Data Elements Multiply competition, the Xinjiang Digital Development Bureau released a report on this year’s award-winning projects. It said the competition was aligned closely with national strategies and Xinjiang’s development needs, building a multi-layered system of categories across 14 key fields. The competition has successfully connected data applications with the real economy, providing precise entry points for cultivating new quality productive forces in Xinjiang, according to the report.
Releasing the value of data requires both excellent competition results and real industrial application. “We will take this competition as an opportunity to accelerate digital economy development, leverage Xinjiang’s large-scale new-energy installations, promote synergy between green energy and computing power, advance the AI Plus initiative, and deepen the integration of AI with industrial and cultural development, public wellbeing and social governance, empowering industries across the board,” Zheng Min, head of the government of Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, said. –The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
