China's digital economy was worth nearly $5.4 trillion last year, ranking second in the world. That represented a year-on-year growth of 9.6 percent, the fastest in the world, Economic Information Daily reported.

The result was announced at the 2021 Global Digital Economy Conference, which is underway in Beijing, and co-hosted by the Beijing municipal government, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Cyberspace Administration of China.

According to the global digital economy white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology at the conference, last year, the value added for the digital economy reached $32.6 trillion in 47 nations, with a nominal growth rate of 3 percent on a yearly basis. 

At the conference, more policy signals were released to further speed up the development of the digital economy, including R&D breakthroughs and iterative applications in high-end chips and key basic software, green smart data and computing facility layouts, and promoting digital transformation in the manufacturing sector.

In the wake of the fragile global economic recovery, the digital economy has become a key to realizing economic recovery and promoting sustainable development, as well as a new driver to boost high-quality development, said Zhuang Rongwen, director of the Cyberspace Administration of China.