Featuring cutting-edge technologies including big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G communications, the digital economy has become increasingly critical as a key factor for economic growth in the digital era.
From Monday to Wednesday, international organizations, industry representatives, experts and scholars gathered at the Smart China Expo 2022 held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, sharing the latest achievements in global digital economy and exploring new cooperation opportunities in the international digital field.
With more than 550 companies in the digital economy sector from 19 countries and regions participating online and offline, the expo witnessed the signing of 70 major investment projects, with the total contract value reaching 212.1 billion yuan (about 31 billion U.S. dollars).
The global digital economy has developed vigorously over recent years, with the total added value of digital economy in 47 major countries around the world reaching 38.1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2021. Of the figure, China's digital economy scale reached 7.1 trillion dollars, ranking second worldwide, according to a white paper on global digital economy released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
A chess game was held at the exhibition hall during the expo. One of the two chess players is iFlyGo Robot, a top chess player embedded with AI algorithm and equipped with mechanical arms. The robot is able to judge the level of the opponent through AI algorithm and take corresponding steps, said Ni Junjuan, a demonstration specialist at iFLYTEK, an AI and speech-technology giant in China.
"The era of digital economy has begun and digital transformation has become an inevitable choice for the development of human society," said Mei Hong, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China's digital economy grew at an average rate of 15.9 percent from 2012 to 2021. During the period, the share of digital economy in its GDP expanded from 20.9 percent to 39.8 percent, representing an annual average increase of about 2.1 percentage points, according to the data from the white paper released by the CAICT.