Digital economy becoming key driver of China's growth

The value-added of China's digital economy hit 35.8 trillion yuan ($5.07 trillion) in 2019, accounting for 36.2 percent of GDP and a proportional increase of 1.4 percentage points year-on-year, according to a report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology on Friday.

The country's digital economy maintained rapid growth momentum last year, seeing an increase of 15.6 percent from a year earlier. This shows the digital transformation speed in various industries is gradually accelerating, CCTV News said, citing Yu Xiaohui, deputy dean of CAICT.

Digital industrialization is developing steadily in China, with the penetration rate of digital economy in service industry, industrial engineering and agriculture industry reaching 37.8 percent, 19.5 percent and 8.2 percent respectively in 2019, and the value-added of digital industrialization reached 7.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.1 percent year-on-year.

The proportion of digitization in software and internet industries continues improving, and data integration is key to promote industry digitization development, the report said.

Currently, China has formed a relatively complete data supply chain, and the data industry system in data collecting, data annotation, data storage, business intelligent processing, data digging and analyzing, data security and data exchange have also been formed. The country's data management and data application capabilities are continuing to improve, CCTV News said.

The digital economy can drive traditional industries to realize transformation and upgrade. Moreover, it can reduce barriers during information flow, as well as speed up resource elements to more rationally flow between industries and regions.

Last year, the value-added of the digital economy in 12 provinces and municipalities surpassed 1 trillion yuan, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing, Fujian, Hubei, Sichuan, Henan, Hebei, Anhui and Hunan.

The digital economy in Beijing and Shanghai occupies a dominant position in the regional economy, accounting for over 50 percent of GDP. Digital economy growth in Guizhou and Fujian is moving ahead of the country's average, with a growth rate of over 20 percent in 2019.