Digital Economy Resource: Original Translation of the US Department of Commerce's "Digital Economy 2000"
Author: Xia Baitan | January 2, 2004, 10:11 PM
**Abstract:**
When the Nasdaq Composite Index fell from its peak above 5000 to a super-low valley of 1500, it was also the time when all authoritative investors were "terrified by the internet." Throughout this period, evaluations of the digital economy have been ongoing. In the past two years, Wall Street investment analysts excessively hyped people's imagination about the digital economy for the next five years. Similar to the highest peak, today's probing of the Nasdaq Composite Index toward its lowest point has also affected the objectivity in evaluating the digital economy. When a small portion of people overly positively evaluated the digital economy due to the rise of the Nasdaq, it might be worthwhile to seriously study the U.S. Department of Commerce’s judgment and long-term assessment of the growth of the digital economy.
Since 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce has released three annual research reports on the digital economy (1998's "Emerging Digital Economy," Chinese translation published by Renmin University of China Press; 1999's "The Emerging Digital Economy," and 2000's "Digital Economy 2000," Chinese translation published by China Friendship Publishing Company). These reports analyze the economic performance of the information technology industry, the impact of IT industries on economic growth, inflation, employment, and labor markets, and provide specific descriptions of emerging e-commerce. All three annual research reports strongly affirm the tremendous driving force that technological changes have had on the U.S. economy.
In the 2000 year-end research report, the Department of Commerce permanently removed the word "Emerging" ("显现中的、新兴的") from the title of the research report. As claimed in the introduction of the report, "The third major report uses new words because the digital economy and digital society are no longer emerging. They are already here. Americans are now surpassing an old era of economic and social development, connecting to these, which are all based on the revolution of digital technology. In this new era, new ways of farming, new forms of communication, new products and services, as well as new models of community emerge."
The aforementioned paragraph can be regarded as the overall evaluation and important conclusion made by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the digital economy. It comprehensively expresses the basic stance of the U.S. Department of Commerce on the highly controversial digital economy. This conclusion was not easily reached; the analysts at the U.S. Department of Commerce spent three long years conducting extensive statistical surveys, analyses, studies, and arguments, "aiming to understand, measure, and explain this significant change in the U.S. and world economies" (Robert Dombros, June 1999, Afterword to "The Emerging Digital Economy"). They even innovated some new statistical analysis methods but did not stop defining and analyzing various phenomena, terms, and data of different natures in this new field until July.
By comparing the three annual reports and related appendices issued continuously by the U.S. Department of Commerce since 1998, one can clearly see the fundamental evaluation of the U.S. government regarding this unprecedented digital revolution:
- The U.S. economy is undergoing a profound transformation. The most obvious external marker of this change, and one of its fundamental causes, is revolutionary technological progress. This includes powerful personal computers, high-speed electronic communications, and the Internet. Over the past 15 years, innovations in information technology, resource market innovation, business model innovation, continuous price reductions in information technology products and services, and increasing investments in this industry have been one of the key reasons for the sustained high growth, low inflation, and high employment in the U.S. economy over the past few decades.
(Note: Some parts of the original text may contain unclear or repetitive sentences. The translation attempts to maintain the intended meaning while improving clarity.)