BEIJING, Jan. 5 -- A white paper on big data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed that the overall level of China's big-data technology industry improved significantly, Thursday's edition of Science and Technology Daily reported.

According to the white paper, China's big-data development environment continues to improve, innovation capacity continues to be enhanced, and the market outlook is widely recognized.

The white paper pointed out that in 2021, the number of published papers in the field of big data in China accounted for 31 percent of the world, and the total number of accepted patents related to big data accounted for over 50 percent of the world, ranking first.

In addition, In 2021, the total number of big-data market participants in China exceeded 180,000, and the investment in big-data-related enterprises exceeded a record high of 80 billion yuan (about 11.6 billion U.S. dollars).

"In 2022, China continued to step up its efforts in terms of policies, talents, and funding, injecting a strong impetus for the further development of big data," said Yu Xiaohui, head of the CAICT.

Released Wednesday at the 5th Data Asset Management Conference, the white paper discussed the overall situation of big-data development in China. It provided a detailed overview and analysis of the current situation, challenges, and trends in data storage and computing, data management, data circulation, data application, and data security.