China reported a massive increase in the size of its digital economy, which shot up by $4.1 trillion over the past seven years.
A research report presented on Wednesday at the main forum of the ongoing Global Digital Economy Conference 2023 in Beijing, the country said the digital economy growth during 2016-2022 amounted to an annual growth rate of 14.2 percent, Xinhua reported.
The scale of China’s digital economy grew to 50.2 trillion yuan (about $6.96 trillion) in 2022, accounting for 41.5 percent of the country’s GDP, making it an important engine for stable growth and transformation, the report said.
Mei Hong, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said China’s digital transformation is advancing from the field of consumption and services to the manufacturing sector in the real economy.
Data shows that in 2022, the operating income of China’s electronic information manufacturing industry was 15.4 trillion yuan, while the software business made 10.8 trillion yuan and big data industry made 1.57 trillion yuan, laying a solid industrial and technological foundation for the integrated development of informatization and industrialization.
The surge in China’s digital economy comes amid countries around the world accelerating the development of key areas of the digital economy, and actively seizing development opportunities in fields such as digital technologies and industries, industrial digitalisation and data elements.
For instance, by March 2023, 256 network operators in 95 countries and regions had commercialised 5G technology, with 1.15 billion 5G users worldwide and a 30.6-percent population coverage rate of 5G network, an increase of 5.5 percent year on year.
In 2022, the revenue of the global artificial intelligence market climbed to $450 billion, up 17.3 percent year on year.
The number of global digital economy unicorn enterprises reached 1,032, accounting for 74.14 percent of global unicorn enterprises, with an estimated value of 24.95 trillion yuan, according to the report.
Ahmed Abdel Hafez, chairman of the executive bureau of the Egyptian supreme cybersecurity council, said China’s achievements in the development of the digital economy have attracted worldwide attention.
China’s opening-up has created development opportunities for other countries, and given them the chance to share the development dividends of China’s big market.
Beijing and 18 partner cities also released the global digital economy partnership city cooperation initiative at the opening ceremony of the conference on Tuesday.
The initiative covers aspects such as accelerating the digital transformation process of cities, green development through digital empowerment, and supporting global digital inclusive cooperation.
It aims to build an open innovation network for the digital economy between global cities and within multi-bilateral frameworks.
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