2026 Global Digital Economy Conference kicks off in Beijing

The 2026 Global Digital Economy Conference kicked off in Beijing on Thursday, drawing corporate executives, business council representatives, and scholars from home and abroad, as well as minister-level officials from Kazakhstan, Colombia and Chad.

At the opening ceremony, the Global Digital Economy City Alliance released the 2026 Global Digital Economy Cities Report, which examines how digital technologies and cities shape each other and underscores that digital technology must be tangible to residents, useful for businesses and accessible to society.

"You need the physical infrastructure, so the data centers, they are the really important element. But you also need trained personnel, and for all of that, one of the most important things, is not just the data centers, but also a policy and relation to the circulation of the data," said Francis Gurry, chair of the Global Digital Economy Cities Alliance and former director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Also unveiled was the 2026 Global Digital Economy Lighthouse Casebook, a joint publication by the International Telecommunication Union, the International Trade Center and the Global Digital Economy City Alliance.

It features 13 "lighthouse cases" from cities including Beijing, Jakarta, Madrid and Istanbul, covering six areas: collaborative digital urban governance, inclusive public digital services, climate-resilient infrastructure, digitally enabled livelihood improvement, low-carbon smart mobility and digital inclusion for vulnerable groups.

Running through Sunday, the conference also hosts a series of special topic sessions covering artificial intelligence, digital talent development and industrial digitalization.

Since its inception in 2021, the event has drawn over 10,000 companies and 150,000 participants from more than 200 countries and international organizations, with 500 outcomes published to date, according to the organizing committee.

The U.S. dollar fell in late trading on Thursday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.52 percent to 100.861 at 15:00. (1900 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.1433 dollars from 1.1380 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.3348 dollars from 1.3278 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 161.05 Japanese yen, lower than 162.53 Japanese yen in the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.8035 Swiss francs from 0.8092 Swiss francs, and it lost to 1.4182 Canadian dollars from 1.4216 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar dropped to 9.6679 Swedish Kronor from 9.7300 Swedish Kronor.