Editor's note: Xue Tianhang is a researcher of Research Center for Regional Coordinated Development, Zhejiang University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Premier Li Qiang hosted a forum for platform enterprises on July 12 where participants discussed ways to promote the healthy and sustainable development of platform economy. Platform economy provides a new engine for innovation and a new channel for employment. In recent years, China's platform economy has developed rapidly and is in a leading position in the world, playing an increasingly important role in promoting innovation and employment.

As an important driver of innovation, platform enterprises are a major force to promote social innovation. National Development and Reform Commission data released in the first quarter of 2023 show the top 10 platform enterprises in China increased their investment mainly through independent investment or subsidiary investment, and the proportion of investment in chips, autonomous driving, new energy, agriculture and other fields gradually increased, up by 15.6 percentage points from the previous month. From 2020 to 2022, the top 10 platform enterprises in China invested more than 500 billion yuan in R&D, with an average annual growth rate of 15 percent. The total number of authorized patents has exceeded 50,000, and the quality of patents has continuously improved, becoming a core force of technological innovation. In addition, platform enterprises also use technology, network flow and data to attract and gather upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, promote the improvement of production efficiency in traditional industries, and accelerate the formation of collaborative innovation ecology. For example, relying on their own technological advantages, platform enterprises have developed and launched online collaborative office products and unmanned delivery logistics products, which not only made great contributions to epidemic prevention and control, but also laid a solid foundation for multiple small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their operational efficiency and digital transformation.

Employment has a vital bearing on people's livelihoods, and is an indicator of economic development. Platform enterprises have played an increasingly important role in employment stabilization and promotion. On one hand, the platform economy has changed traditional employment patterns through technological innovation and integration with the real economy, and multiple new departments and new jobs have sprouted. According to data published in the "Occupational Classification System of the People's Republic of China (2022 Edition)", there were 158 new occupations in China in 2022, of which 97 were related to digital industry. On the other hand, platform enterprises include many job types, flexible full-time and part-time jobs, and are highly inclusive. Platform enterprises not only provide a foundation for the emergence of labor-intensive jobs such as take-away riders and online car-hailing drivers, but also knowledge-intensive jobs such as online education and creative planning, which can provide corresponding employment opportunities for workers with different educational levels and skill levels. The 9th Chinese Labor Force Survey shows that there are 84 million workers in new employment forms in China, including truck drivers, online car-hailing drivers, couriers, delivery workers, etc., accounting for 21 percent of the total number of employees, which have become a major part of China’s labor force. In addition, platform enterprises connect tens of millions of small and medium-sized enterprises and hundreds of millions of workers. Relying on digital technology, they can accurately match the labor supply and demand sides on a large scale and with high efficiency, thus alleviating the information asymmetry in the labor market and reducing frictional unemployment.

General Secretary Xi Jinping said platform enterprises should be supported to play a full role in creating jobs, expanding consumption and international competition to promote the standardized and healthy sustainable development of platform economy. As it seeks to modernize , China should constantly improve laws and regulations, improve market rules and optimize the business environment to standardize the development of platform enterprises, give full play to their positive role in promoting innovation and employment, and enhance the strategic value of platform economy in China's modern economic system.