Gao Xingfu, vice governor of Zhejiang, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the 2019 World Digital Economy Conference  in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Sept 6.［Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn］

The digital economy in China is picking up steam, as digitalization is leading a new round of scientific and technological innovation and industrial transformation globally, noted Zhang Xueying, vice head of the State Information Center.

Zhang made the comments while addressing the main forum of the 2019 World Digital Economy Conference, which opened in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Friday.

Echoing Zhang, Gao Xingfu, vice governor of Zhejiang, pointed out that the digital economy has emerged as a crucial driver of economic growth worldwide with the accelerated integration of technologies including internet, big data and artificial intelligence.

China's digital economy accounted for 34.8 percent of its gross domestic product in 2018, according to a report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in April. The report shows that the value of internet-based digital economy rose to 31.3 trillion yuan ($4.6 trillion) last year, up by 20.9 percent year-on-year.