In order to support the strategic objectives of “cyberpower”, “Digital China” and “high-quality development” proposed in the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan of the People’s Republic of China for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, guide the development of the industry and allocate government public resources, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Information and Communication Industry (hereinafter referred to as “the Plan”) in November 2021.

Based on the development achievements of the information and communication industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the document analyses the main challenges faced by China's information and communication industry and points out the development objectives (including quantitative indicators) and key tasks for the ICT industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

The main problems faced by China's information and communication industry summarized in the Plan include: unbalanced regional development of information infrastructure, insufficient integrated application of information and communication technology in production links, imperfect industrial law and regulation system and insufficient cybersecurity capability.

On this basis, the Plan puts forward the development goal of the information and communication industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period: to build a high-speed and ubiquitous, integrated and interconnected, intelligent and green, safe and reliable new digital infrastructure by 2025.

New digital infrastructure refers to the expansion of traditional telecommunications network facilities with information transmission as the core into the new-generation infrastructure system integrating perception, transmission, storage, computing and processing, which includes i) new-generation communication network infrastructure such as 5G, gigabit optical fibre network, IPv6, mobile IoT and satellite communication network; ii) data and computing facilities such as data centre, AI and blockchain and iii) integrated infrastructure such as industrial Internet and IoV.

To facilitate the implementation, the Plan further breaks down the development objectives and sets 20 quantitative indicators in six aspects, namely industry scale, infrastructure construction, green energy conservation, application and popularization, innovative development, and inclusive sharing, including 5G user penetration, data centre computing power, decline in comprehensive energy consumption for per unit of total telecommunications services.