Xi'an to host Digital Silk Road Development Forum

The Digital Silk Road Development Forum of World Internet Conference will be held in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, on April 16, said Ren Xianliang, secretary-general of the WIC, at the forum's news conference on Wednesday.

Centered on the theme of "Connectivity and Shared Prosperity", the Digital Silk Road Development Forum will focus on three topics, namely "Digital Connectivity and Cooperation in Building the Silk Road", "Silk Road E-commerce International Cooperation", and "Digital Villages and Sustainable Development" to conduct extensive exchanges and discussions.

As a part of the forum, the World Internet Conference Digital Academy Program will be officially launched. This program aims to cultivate digital talents, enhance digital literacy, promote collaborative construction and sharing, create new platforms, and present novel opportunities.

To date, a range of international organizations and renowned enterprises, including GSMA, Micron, Qualcomm, Intel, Alibaba, ZTE, and more, from over 30 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in the forum.

In recent years, Shaanxi province has focused on the development of the digital economy, striving to create new advantages in digital infrastructure.

The scale of the digital economy in the province is expected to reach 1.4 trillion yuan in 2023, accounting for more than 40 percent of its GDP. Furthermore, the added-value growth of key industries in digital product manufacturing surged by 18 percent year-on-year, said Sun Daguang, head of the Shaanxi provincial publicity department, at the news conference.

Currently, the province boasts a nation-level supercomputing center and artificial intelligence computing center, while infrastructure construction utilizing satellite positioning, satellite remote sensing, and geographic information is steadily progressing, according to Sun.

As the host city, Xi'an firmly believes in the digital economy as a new driving force for industrial growth.

Presently, the city has more than 400 big data and cloud computing enterprises, over 300 artificial intelligence enterprises, and nearly 2,600 various software and information service enterprises, according to Yao Lijun, head of the Xi'an municipal publicity, at the news conference.

In 2023, the added-value of the core industries of the digital economy in the city accounted for more than 9 percent of its GDP, said Yao.