BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- More than two years after the introduction of a three-year action plan to boost the development and application of data as a production factor, China has seen the value of data resources further unleashed, an official with the National Data Administration (NDA) said Thursday.

Luan Jie, deputy director of the department of policy and planning of the NDA, said at a press conference that the country has made significant progress in promoting the innovative application of data resources across various sectors.

China has been stepping up efforts to develop its data market in recent years. In 2020, the country listed data as a new type of production factor, alongside traditional factors such as land, labor, capital and technology, highlighting its growing role in driving economic growth and digital transformation.

The NDA, which was established in October 2023, is tasked with advancing the planning and development of a Digital China, the digital economy and a digital society. It is also responsible for advancing the building of basic systems for data and coordinating the integration, sharing, development and application of data resources.

The three-year action plan on data as a production factor sets out efforts to expand the breadth and depth of data applications across key sectors, foster new industries, business models and growth drivers, and unlock the multiplier effect of data in supporting high-quality development.

The NDA has released 417 typical cases and identified 760 typical application scenarios involving data as a production factor across 11 industries, surpassing its target of creating more than 300 scenarios ahead of schedule, according to Luan.

In 2025, China's total volume of active data reached 1.67 zettabytes, up 28.46 percent year on year, Luan said. A zettabyte is the equivalent of about one trillion gigabytes.

The number of enterprise data products and services rose 29.29 percent from the previous year, while the transaction value of such products and services increased by 39.8 percent.

The NDA will further improve data governance, deepen scenario-based applications and enhance value creation, transforming policy dividends into development opportunities and accelerating the multiplier effect of data as a production factor, Luan said. ■