In the initial stages of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese central government has begun investing in the development of the 'new infrastructure', which includes the deployment of 5G networks and data centres. It is expected that this new infrastructure will play a key role in the recovery of the economy, since online sales opportunities, online medical advice, and online pharmacies have proven to be critical during the COVID-19 crisis. This begs the question of what has been achieved in Europe with regard to smart supply chains. 

According to the author Lei Xu, who published the article entitled New tech infrastructure will help economies recover after COVID-19 on the World Economic Forum, smart supply chains, and smart logistics will become indispensable to a functioning economy in the future. The article further elaborates on how the general public has realised that economic and social operations have not shut down despite the increased isolation imposed by the lockdown measures. Therefore, an important factor in this progress is the enabling of support of the new infrastructures such as technologies including 5G networks, data centres, artificial intelligence, industrial internet, and the Internet of Things. This is the smart and digital foundation of high-quality economic development, which gives rise to new models, new business types and new services. It could open up a broad space for new manufacturing, new services, and new consumption.

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