A seminar on co-building digital civilization in the Yangtze River Delta region kicked off at the 2022 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit on Wednesday in East China's Zhejiang province. The Yangtze River Delta region is an economic powerhouse of modern China, which encompasses the metropolis of Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.

During the seminar, the Digital Yangtze River Delta Alliance was established to promote the integration of the region in various digital fields.

The alliance – including Qingpu and Songjiang districts in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Jiaxing, and Huzhou in Zhejiang province, Nanjing and Suzhou in Jiangsu province, and Hefei and Wuhu in Anhui province – will collaborate to boost the development of the digital economy in the region.

Zhejiang will join hands with Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Anhui to focus on the six major fields, including digital infrastructure, digital industry, digital technology, digital society, digital government, and digital systems and mechanisms to jointly promote the construction of the digital Yangtze River Delta, according to Xu Wenguang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), during the seminar.

According to Huang Xianhai, vice-president of Zhejiang University, the positioning of digital economy integrated development in the region targets safeguarding the global data transactions and digital trade centers, building an internationally influential digital financial center and innovative center, and establishing an internationally important data industry chain cluster.

Specifically, a digital link platform should be developed to help match supply and demand and the recycles of the internal and external market, Huang added.

Li Jichun, director of the Think Tank Center of the Yangtze Delta region Institute of Tsinghua University in Zhejiang, explained the importance of digital civilization from the perspective of Chinese philosophy. "Numbers are rich in concept in Chinese culture. It is part of Chinese culture and the carrier of Chinese culture. Through numbers, we can know about ancient people's thinking patterns, philosophical thoughts, religious ideas and other valuable cultural heritages."

"In the integrated development for the future, it is necessary to make better use of digital, technology and its market," said Wang Zhen, vice-president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2019, the integrated regional development of the Yangtze River Delta was elevated to a national strategy, adding momentum to the region's growth.

As the Yangtze River Delta is one of China's most economically active, open, and innovative regions, this year's co-constriction of digital civilization boasts strategic significance in leveraging the strengths of the region's enormous market, stimulating the vitality of the digital economy, enhancing government efficiency, optimizing the digital social environment, setting up a digital cooperation structure, and building a strong digital security shield.

Fang Xiaoying in Wuzhen contributed to this story.