Huang Chaochun: The World Data Organization Creates More Possibilities for the Global South

Ask AI · How WDO Can Leverage the Cost Advantages of Southern Countries to Promote Data Industry Clustering?

Recently, the World Data Organization (World Data Organization, WDO) established itself in Beijing, providing a new hub for global data governance and offering new development opportunities for countries in the Global South.

The free flow and optimal allocation of factor resources worldwide are important driving forces for global economic development. For a long time, countries in the Global South have integrated into the global industrial, supply, and value chains through international trade, effectively solving investment shortages and foreign exchange deficits by utilizing global capital, promoting industrialization, creating jobs, reducing poverty, and driving technology transfer and management spillovers, collectively advancing the economic development of Southern countries.

However, with the rise of global trade protectionism, cross-border capital flows have been affected, and the world economy, especially countries in the Global South, faces new development pressures. Against this backdrop, WDO has emerged, building a global platform for data development and governance cooperation, promoting data circulation, development, utilization, and collaboration, and striving to address issues such as data sovereignty, data rules, data standards, data pricing, data flow, and data security fragmentation and institutional disjointedness, taking a key step toward joint global efforts in data governance and development. Meanwhile, by providing more institutional support for cross-border data flows and breaking down bottlenecks and blockages, WDO is expected to drive continuous breakthroughs in digital trade, industrial restructuring, and technological innovation, injecting new momentum into global trade and economic growth.

Compared with other production factors, data features high mobility, high permeability, high universality, and high empowerment, demonstrating multiple effects such as additive and multiplier effects in social production participation. A typical example is the recent online buzz about “Token going overseas”: this idea suggests that, given the high energy and computing power prices in Western countries, countries like China and other Southern nations could use tokens as carriers to convert their electricity advantages into export services for computing power, significantly increasing the added value of electric energy products. Objectively, due to many policy barriers from Western countries, this idea is unlikely to become a reality in the short term, but it reflects the many prospects brought by efficient data flow. By promoting cross-border data movement, WDO can unleash multiple dynamic effects and the “equity” and “empowerment” effects, creating more possibilities for Southern countries to leverage comparative advantages, solve development challenges, and achieve catch-up growth.

1. Breaking free from the “unfair starting point” of traditional trade.
   In traditional trade, developed countries and developing countries often exhibit a vertical division of labor between “primary products” and “high-value-added products,” with unequal starting points. But data from different countries has no value difference—data is mainly priced based on scenarios rather than quantity or category, fundamentally lacking “high or low, noble or inferior” distinctions, eliminating value gaps in trade between nations. This allows Southern countries to stand on the same starting line as developed countries in digital trade. Additionally, with large populations and rich digital scenarios, Southern countries possess some of the most growth-potential native data resources globally, gaining more exchange value from cross-border data flows.

2. Developing data-related industries based on comparative advantages.
   Compared to developed countries, Southern countries have obvious advantages in data storage, computing services, and labor costs, creating market space for promoting “North Data, South Computing” globally. Data shows that the average construction cost of data centers in Southern countries is about 43%–54% of that in the EU, with operational costs (including electricity and labor) averaging $8–12 per TB per month, while in developed countries it is $15–22. Regarding wages, UNCTAD data indicates that in Southern countries, the average monthly salary for data analysts, programmers, and other digital talents is $1,200–2,500, only 27%–56% of similar roles in developed countries. Normative cross-border data flow will amplify this comparative advantage, attracting data processing, annotation, and cross-border data operation industries to cluster in Southern countries.

3. Changing the unfavorable situation of resource acquisition.
   For Southern countries, resource scarcity has long been a development bottleneck. As a new type of factor with both non-excludability and non-rivalry characteristics, data is becoming a core engine of shared economy development. As WDO gradually breaks down geographical and regulatory barriers to cross-border data flows and promotes infrastructure connectivity, Southern countries will find it easier to access data resources, effectively reducing costs related to capital, technology, and other factors. A World Bank report shows that including data assets in balance sheets can reduce financing interest rates for SMEs in Southern countries by 1.8–2.5 percentage points, and those participating in cross-border data R&D cooperation see an average 27% reduction in research investment.

4. Improving overall social governance efficiency.
   The gap between Southern and developed countries is not only reflected in economic size and technological level but also in governance efficiency. Cross-border data flow represents a new governance paradigm—by learning from global governance experience, connecting global governance resources, and participating in international cooperation, it forces a transformation of traditional governance models, addressing issues of single tools and low efficiency. Data governance participation has been shown to improve domestic governance efficiency by an average of 25% in Southern countries. Enhanced governance efficiency will provide lasting “institutional dividends” for Southern nations.

In summary, the establishment of WDO, by creating a platform for equal participation in global data cooperation and sharing digital dividends, promotes the development of a more fair, open, secure, and inclusive global data governance system. This will also change the long-standing development logic restricting Southern countries and create opportunities for their comprehensive leapfrogging. (Author is Secretary of the Party Committee and Researcher at Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences)