Tech progress sought to drive growth

The nation will ramp up resources to make breakthroughs in cutting-edge and core technologies and promote the further integration of the internet and traditional industries, which will inject new impetus into China's economic growth, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said that more efforts will be made to enhance the capabilities of safeguarding key information infrastructure, network data and personal information, in a bid to build the nation's strength in cyberspace.

Chen made the remarks at the 2018 China Internet Conference held in Beijing from Tuesday to Thursday, where he called for boosting digital and technological innovation in traditional industries and cultivating a new driving force for economic growth.

"We should also speed up the popularization of internet application and shrink the digital divide to offer more efficient, reliable and inclusive information services," he added.

A booming digital economy is reshaping China's economic landscape as technology such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing revives traditional industries and casts new light on high-quality development.

China's digital economy was worth 27.2 trillion yuan ($4.1 trillion) in 2017, accounting for 32.9 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

Last year, 171 million people worked in China's digital economy-related sectors, accounting for 22 percent of the nation's total employment.

Wen Ku, director of the telecom development department at Chen's ministry, said the convergence of the digital economy and real economy is gaining momentum.

He hoped internet companies play a key role in talent cultivation and information technology innovation to assist the transformation of the traditional industries. "They should do more in promoting the healthy development of the industry and strengthening the protection of personal information and privacy."

360 Enterprise Security Group, a leading Chinese network security company, has made a string of achievements in core technologies related to key information infrastructure and cybersecurity, and increased investment in the field.