The ESRC-GCRF funded IDMODEL project held its China high level conference on 4th Nov. 2021. Jiaofeng Pan, President of CASISD, and Daniel Brooker, China Director of UKRI gave their welcome remarks at the conference. Mr Brooker noted that the IDMODEL project provided an excellent study case for research on marginalized people, promoting mutual prosperity and international academic co-operation, and that the UKRI was  committed to helping research on business innovation, and providing support for the promotion of domestic and international academic research innovation.

Professor Xiaolan Fu delivered a keynote speech entitled “Digital Innovation Empowered Road for Common Prosperity” on behalf of the IDMODEL project team. She presented the project  research and results carried out in Bangladesh. She noted that the "kuaishou" digital platform was used to conduct in-depth analysis and randomized, group-controlled, empirical experimental research in Bangladesh.  Professor Fu explained how the project results proved that digital technology and digital platforms could effectively provide opportunities and capacity enhancement platforms for marginal and disadvantaged groups, and help grassroots entrepreneurs overcome barriers, reduce poverty and promote common prosperity.   The innovation of digital technology will also play an important role in solving new challenges, and promote economic recovery, after the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Jietang Tian, Vice President, Institute of Innovation and Development, Development Research Centre, State Council, and Wei Jiang, Dean of the School of Management, Zhejiang University, discussed ways of dealing with the challenges faced by the development of the digital economy. President Tian commented on the results of the IDMODEL project, noting that it was a high-quality study with very important practical significance. He also said that we must pay attention to the problems of the short video platforms, such as inappropriate (vulgar) content, and fake or inferior products. Mr. Tian noted that the digitization of the social economy was still in its infancy, and lacked research. He called on all parties to pay more attention to the issue of whether digital technology and innovation could help reduce the income gap. Prof. Wei emphasized the importance of the Internet-enabled manufacturing industry, and shared Zhejiang's industrial practices in digital innovation. He considered the IDMODEL concept to be of great value to China’s digital development. He  said that strengthening the construction of digital infrastructure, paying attention on  whether the popularization of digital technology could reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, and determining whether vigorously promoting digitalization could help solve the problem of grassroots entrepreneurship and innovation were very important topics for achieving common prosperity.

Prof Pervez Ghauri (Co-I of IDMODEL) project and partners and advisors of the IDMDOEL project, Ms Sonia Kabir, Mr. Torbjörn Fredriksson, Prof. Xiaoqiang Xing, and leading scholars in the field, including Derek Miao Yue, Zhijian Hu, Xiheng Jiang, Jiang Yu, Fuquan Sun, and Jin Chen spoke at the conference, sharing their valuable insights and research findings about digital innovation and inclusive development.

Find out more about the IDMODEL Project here.