Joining hands to build a new ecosystem of inclusive global data governance - Interview with Yang Jie, Secretary General of the World Data Organization

The World Data Organization was established in Beijing on March 30th, attracting widespread attention from the industry. Xinhua News Agency recently conducted an exclusive interview with Yang Jie, Secretary General of the World Data Organization, to engage in in-depth dialogue on topics such as core positioning, industrial impact, development planning, and global governance mission.

Q: What is the core purpose, mission, and development vision of the World Data Organization?

Answer: In the era of digital economy, releasing the multiplier effect of data elements is an inevitable requirement for adapting to modern economic digital production, and it is also a necessary path for countries to achieve economic growth. The full release of the value of data elements cannot be separated from more open global cooperation. The current global data development and cooperation face three prominent challenges:

One is the uneven development capacity, with significant differences in data resource acquisition, infrastructure construction, technological capabilities, institutional supply, and talent cultivation among different countries and regions. Countries in the global South are facing a new development gap in the digital age;

The second issue is the fragmentation of rules and standards, with significant differences in rules in areas such as data security, personal information protection, cross-border mobility, and algorithm governance, insufficient interoperability, and high compliance costs;

Thirdly, there is a lack of synergy in the industrial ecosystem, with uneven data quality, poor supply-demand matching, scattered application scenarios, and inadequate cooperation mechanisms, which directly constrain the release of data element value and the overall efficiency improvement of the digital economy.

In this context, the international community urgently needs an open, inclusive, professional neutral cooperation platform with industry collaboration and capacity building as its core focus. The World Data Organization has emerged to address practical issues such as insufficient data capabilities, poor circulation mechanisms, and weak industrial cooperation.

The purpose of the World Data Organization is to bridge the data divide, unleash the value of data, and prosper the digital economy; The core mission is to promote global data development and governance practices, facilitate data exchange and utilization under the premise of compliance, security, and trustworthiness, and serve the development of the global digital economy; Clear and definite development vision: By around 2030, strive to develop the organization into a practical platform and trust hub with international influence in the field of data.

Q: What impact will the establishment of the World Data Organization have on the global industry and the development of the digital industry?

Answer: The core positioning of the World Data Organization is to create a dialogue and collaboration platform for global data cooperation that is practice oriented, industry oriented, and multi-party oriented. The industrial impact brought about by its establishment will be reflected in three core dimensions.

Firstly, it helps to reduce the cooperation friction caused by fragmented rules, inconsistent standards, and insufficient interoperability, significantly improving the policy predictability of enterprises conducting data cooperation and cross-border business;

Secondly, it helps to systematically integrate rule research, technological collaboration, key facilities, compliance services, and talent cultivation, promoting the smooth transformation of data elements into real productivity;

Thirdly, it helps promote the ecological synergy and scenario implementation of the global digital industry, driving the use of data in key areas of the real economy such as manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, and energy, and forming more replicable and scalable application solutions.

Q: What unique value does the World Data Organization have in terms of positioning and functions? How will we fill the gap in global data governance?

Answer: Most of the existing international data governance mechanisms focus on a single link, with a greater emphasis on principle discussions, technical specifications, and the establishment of regulatory frameworks. The unique value of the World Data Organization lies in systematically connecting and linking these dispersed links around the entire lifecycle of data and the entire chain of data cooperation, forming effective complementarity with existing mechanisms rather than substitution relationships.

The World Data Organization is always willing to work together with relevant international organizations to promote global data cooperation from rule discussions to standard integration, scenario implementation, and inclusive development.

Q: What tasks will the World Data Organization focus on promoting? How to ensure professional, neutral, and efficient operation?

Answer: The World Data Organization will carry out the first batch of work around three directions: first, to establish a mechanism for collecting and responding to member demands on a regular basis, comprehensively understanding and prioritizing the most urgent practical issues in industry development; Secondly, focusing on the pain points of fragmented rules and high compliance costs in the industry, we will accelerate the launch of the first batch of public products such as research reports, compliance guidelines, and standard recommendations; The third is to strengthen practical promotion, focusing on key areas such as agriculture, energy, healthcare, and education, and refining excellent industry cases into replicable and scalable systematic solutions.

To address the challenges of significant differences in global rule systems, insufficient technical standards and infrastructure connectivity, and high trust and compliance costs in cross-border data flows, the development strategy of the World Data Organization is to comprehensively integrate rule exchange, technology collaboration, facility support, industrial cooperation, and ecological cultivation. Through case knowledge bases, professional training, standard recommendations, and global cooperation networks, the threshold for global data cooperation will be gradually lowered, subject mutual trust will be enhanced, and the participation capabilities of all parties will be improved.

The World Data Organization will establish a governance structure with clear rights and responsibilities, orderly operation, and mutual coordination, and implement a governance system of "General Assembly, Board of Directors, Leaders, Supervisors, and Secretariat". The General Assembly is the highest authority, the Board of Directors is the executive body, the Leaders perform their duties within the scope of the Articles of Association, the Supervisors assume independent supervision responsibilities, and the Secretariat is responsible for daily operations. At the same time, a strict information disclosure system will be established to timely disclose necessary information to members and society. Through institutionalized disclosure, procedural decision-making, and independent supervision, the transparency and credibility of the organization will be continuously strengthened, and the professional, neutral, and efficient operation of the organization will be effectively guaranteed to ensure that all measures are truly implemented and effective.