The digital economy is of great upward potential.

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China's digital economy experienced rapid expansion in recent years, with its scale increasing from CNY 11 trillion (USD 1.65 trillion) in 2012 to over CNY 45 trillion in 2021, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The proportion of the digital economy in China's GDP rose from 21.6% to 39.8% in the period, official data showed.

For a long time, China has been accelerating the construction of digital infrastructure. By the end of this May, China had built the world's largest and technologically advanced network facilities, covering all major cities with fiber-optic networks and establishing 1.7 million 5G base stations.

In 2021, the value-added output of major electronic information manufacturers rose 15.7% year-on-year, hitting a record high in a decade, while the revenues of software and information technology services as well as internet and related services also registered double-digit growth, said the ministry.

China has also sped up the integration of big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence with such sectors as energy, medical care, transportation, education and agriculture.

Moreover, China's online retail sales of physical goods exceeded CNY 10 trillion for the first time in 2021, up 12% year-on-year; and 151.2 billion mobile payment transactions were made, up 22.73% year-on-year.

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