Zhejiang reports 7.6% GDP growth during first 6 months

Officials introduce Zhejiang's advancements in economic development in the first six months of 2018 in Hangzhou on July 23. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

Zhejiang province, one of the most developed regions in China, reported a gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.5674 trillion yuan ($378.56 billion) in the first half of 2018, up 7.6 percent year-on-year, according to a news conference in Hangzhou on July 23.

Officials said at the news conference that the province's overall economy is growing with good momentum. They also said that the supply-side reform, the conversion of key growth drivers, and the overall quality of products made in the province all saw steady progress in the first six months of 2018.

Wang Jie, director of Zhejiang's statistics bureau, said that from January to June, the primary industry in the province saw 80.5 billion yuan of value added, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 percent; secondary industry rose 7.4 percent to 1,095.3 billion yuan; tertiary industry gained 1, 391.6 billion yuan, up 8.1 percent over last year.

The service sector made an increased contribution to GDP, accounting for 54.2 percent of the total.

"In the future, the service sector including designing, brand building and marketing, will be of great significance to Zhejiang's manufacturing industry," said Shi Jinchuan, a professor from Zhejiang University. He predicted that in some regions of the province, the tertiary industry will dominate economic development in the years to come.

The advancement of the digital economy is leading the industrial upgrading of Zhejiang, the official statistics revealed. In the first half of 2018, the value added generated in the core fields of digital economy reached 234.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 16.4 percent, representing 9.1 percent of the province's GDP.

Workers at Wenzhou Judger Garment Co Ltd make clothes at an intelligent assembly line. [Photo/Xinhua]

A customer uses a facial scanner to pay the bill at a restaurant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Sept 19, 2017. The facial scanner developed by online payment platform Alipay can gives customers a new alternative way to pay their bills in addition to smart phones or cash. [Photo/Chinanews.com]