Photo: Xinhua

The opening ceremony of the Shanghai Data Exchange was held on Thursday, with about 100 traders signing the first transaction deals, including Shanghai Electric Power Co and China Eastern Airlines, as the nation strives to increase its data value and explore the best path for global data trading.

The exchange provides the country's first data trading system, covering data trading subjects and providing services including data compliance consulting, quality assessment and asset valuation, with a support system to guarantee the whole process of data trading.

"Setting up the Shanghai Data Exchange is an important move in accelerating the circulation of data and unleashing digital dividends, as the exchange has gathered the scattered data to make it more valuable," Pan Helin, executive director with the digital economy research institute under the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told the Global Times on Thursday.

In the era of the digital economy, data has become a vital factor of production, and data trading has greatly promoted the development of China's digital economy, Pan said, adding that the exchange of anonymized data will ensure data security while clearly identifying both buyers and sellers.

During its first day online, the Shanghai Data Exchange completed 20 listings involving eight fields such as finance, transportation and communication, with about 100 data traders signing the first transactions.

Fudata Technology Co, which was among the first group of contracted data traders, told the Global Times on Thursday that the company, as a data vendor of privacy computing, will carry out desensitization governance and data monetization, as well as providing a technology and operating platform to protect data privacy.

The definition and protection of data property rights, as well as the lack of unified global data trading rules, are the biggest problems for data trading, Liu Gang, director of the Nankai Institute of Economics and chief economist at the Chinese Institute of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"Setting up a new data exchange in Shanghai shows the country's contribution to improving the efficiency of resource allocation of enterprises and promoting data circulation around the world, as China's data management continuously improves," Liu said.

Since 2015, China has set up more than 10 data exchanges in many provinces, including Beijing, Southwest China's Guizhou and Central China's Hubei. 

On November 1, China officially applied to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, an international agreement that establishes approaches and collaboration in upgrading digital trade around the world. It will promote global innovation and sustainable development, as China has become a leader in international data trading, experts said.