Report Released for China-Led ISO Research Grant Project on Information Security Standard and Digital Trade
Date: 10 26, 2026
Recently, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) officially published the research report The Impact of ISO/IEC 27001 Certification on Digital Trade. The report is the outcome of the ISO Research Grant and marks the first time China has undertaken the ISO Research Grant project. The report elucidates the underlying mechanism through which international standards empower digital trade, and offers a Chinese approach to building a secure, trustworthy and resilient global digital trade system.
Under the research theme of "cybersecurity standards," China has conducted research on the relationship between information security management system standards and digital trade. Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection — Information security management systems — Requirements (ISO/IEC 27001:2022) is an information security management system standard jointly issued by ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It is designed to help enterprises and public institutions establish, implement, maintain and continually improve their information security management systems, and to enhance their capabilities in data security and privacy protection. The report The Impact of ISO/IEC 27001 Certification on Digital Trade is based on standard-implementation and trade data from 165 countries, and conducts analysis at the national, regional and enterprise levels. The findings show that the implementation of ISO/IEC 27001 significantly improves enterprises' risk-prevention capabilities and management efficiency, expands the scale of digital trade, and promotes the development of digital industrialization trade, with a particularly pronounced trade-driving effect on developing countries.
The ISO Research Grant is a research program established by ISO in 2021 for young scholars worldwide. It covers forward-looking themes such as standards and sustainable development, and standards and emerging technologies, with the aim of advancing in-depth standardization research and cultivating a future talent pool for standardization.