Digital economy becomes China's major growth engine: white paper

BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's digital economy, ranking  second worldwide for many years, has become a major growth engine for  the country, according to a white paper published Monday.

The  white paper titled "Jointly Build a Community with a Shared Future in  Cyberspace" was released by China's State Council Information Office.

By 2021, the value of China's digital economy had reached 45.5  trillion yuan, accounting for 39.8 percent of its GDP, said the white  paper.

By June 2022, there were 1.05 billion internet users in  China, and the internet penetration rate had reached 74.4 percent, read  the white paper, adding that the country hosts the world's largest 5G  network and becomes one of the global leaders in 5G standards and  technology, with 1.85 million 5G cell towers and 455 million 5G cell  phone subscribers.

With the BeiDou-3 global navigation  satellite system now operational, and beginning to provide global  services in July 2020, the BeiDou industrial system is in place and  provides notable economic and social benefits, the white paper said,  adding that China's satellite navigation and positioning services  generated 469 billion yuan of industrial output in 2021.

According to the white paper, China vigorously cultivates new  technologies and applications such as artificial intelligence (AI),  Internet of Things (IoT) and next-generation communication networks to  accelerate the transformation from digitalization and network-based  service to artificial intelligence in various economic and social  sectors. Innovation has become a defining feature in the country.

Noting China's industrial internet has grown rapidly, and the digital transformation of manufacturing industry continues, the white paper  said that 55.3 percent of the key processes of large industrial  enterprises had become digitally controlled, and the application of  digital R&D tools was as high as 74.7 percent by February 2022.

China's digital transformation of agriculture is making steady  progress. 5G, the IoT, big data and AI have been applied in agricultural production and management, and key technological development and  innovative application research for intelligent agriculture and farming  machinery have been strengthened, according to the white paper.

Digitalization and the provision of digital capacity continue to grow. E-commerce is flourishing, said the white paper.

In 2021, China's online retail sales of consumer goods stood at 10.8  trillion yuan, up 12 percent year-on-year. The turnover in China's  cross-border e-commerce reached 1.92 trillion yuan, up 18.6 percent  year-on-year. The scale of third-party payment transactions continues to expand.

New methods have been introduced to upgrade commercial models of the service industry, and internet-based medical services,  online education, and remote working have accelerated the digitalization of the service industry, the white paper added.