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Tencent head’s lecture highlights city’s drive to promote technology and openness
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On April 13, Shanghai Party Chief Han Zheng invited Tencent Inc founder, chairman and chief executive officer Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, to give a 90 minute lecture during a study session of the members of the standing committee of CPC Shanghai Committee.
Ma’s lecture centered on the Chinese government’s Internet Plus plan, a new initiative designed to accelerate the development of mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of things’s integration with modern manufacturing industries. Ultimately, leaders see the strengthening of these areas as vital to the advancement and expansion of e-commerce, Internet finance and other emerging pillars of economic growth.
On the same day Ma delivered his lecture, Tencent and the Shanghai government signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement.
It is rare for private entrepreneurs to be guest speakers for such high-level study sessions. In fact, Ma is the first such a guest speaker from an Internet company to give a lecture to senior officials in Shanghai since Han became the city’s Party chief. But with the top leadership now advocating a larger role for technology, more guest speakers with similar backgrounds are likely to step onto the podium to speak to leaders.
Study sessions like the one mentioned above are usually held on a monthly basis and have traditionally featured guest lecturers from central government agencies, academic institutions and research centers. Recently though, local authorities have also looked elsewhere for advice and insights when it comes to solving practical problems.
In July 2013, for example, Han invited four community-level cadres to address the members of the standing committee of CPC Shanghai Committee, the city’s highest ranking Party officials. At that time, the CPC was in the midst of a campaign to get closer to ordinary people and Han was quoted as saying that officials should “regard the public as (their) teachers.”
The following year, three “grassroots” officials were invited to share their thoughts on “carrying out core values of socialism.” Such invitations suggest a growing emphasis on real-world knowledge when it comes to planning policy.
In today’s Shanghai, Internet Plus cannot simply serve as another buzzword, it should provide a real roadmap for officials to realize their stated goal of turning the city into a technological center with global influence. Naturally, top executives at the country’s leading Internet companies are among the most qualified to comment on such plans as well as other initiatives that deploy technology to solve pressing social issues.
Indeed, sources say that during this year’s National People’s Congress in Beijing Ma and Han discussed the possibility of Tencent cooperating with Shanghai on the implementation of Internet Plus measures.
Changing the way we think
Realizing change won’t be easy and much has to be done to change the way leaders view technology. Last July, Han reportedly said that many officials in Shanghai are “not ready to face the changes and opportunities brought by the fast development of the Internet and technology.” Han stressed that cloud computing, big data and mobile Internet can “change the way people think, work and interact with each other.”
For the government, the promotion of the Internet Plus plan raises more than just a series of technological problems.
It raises a whole host of governance issues, many of which boil down to whether authorities can accept an expanding role for technology in society and the economy.
By inviting an IT entrepreneur of Ma’s calibre to speak at the city’s recent Party Committee meeting, local authorities look to have taken an important step forward in this direction.
Greater openness toward technology is needed now more than ever in China as the country’s leaders confront a diverse array of new challenges. Fortunately, the government is now in possession of a tremendous amount of data pertaining to many of these problems.
This information is a vital resource that must be utilized effectively to promote progress. To achieve this goal, officials must be open to change and willing to accept advice from those with the know-how to solve today’s challenges.
Shanghai Daily reporter Guo Mingliang translated the article from www.shobserver.com
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