The scale of China's digital economy grew to 50.2 trillion yuan (about $7.25 trillion) in 2022, with a year-on-year nominal growth of 10.3 percent and ranking second globally, an industry report released on Thursday revealed.

The share of the digital economy in the country's GDP rose to 41.5 percent, according to the report on the development of China's digital industry released at the ongoing 6th Digital China Summit held in Fuzhou City, east China's Fujian Province.

It added that the country's digital economy has ranked second in the world for several years and become a major growth engine for the country marching toward modernization.

By the end of 2022, China had put 2.31 million 5G base stations into operation, and the number of 5G users in the country had reached 561 million, accounting for more than 60 percent of the world's total, the report said.

With the theme of "Accelerating the construction of digital China to promote Chinese modernization," the two-day summit focuses on showcasing the latest achievements of the Digital China initiative and on sharing experiences in digital development.

As a part of the summit, a five-day exhibition was opened to the public in Fuzhou. Participants have the opportunity to witness progress in areas such as digital infrastructure, digital economy and digital society at the exhibition. 

For digital communication, a secure, stable and real-time communication network technology attracted participants' attention. An exhibitor brought an ultra-low latency and low delay variation transmission network, which could be used in intelligent driving, agriculture and remote medicine.

According to the exhibitor, the network latency showed in a two-way communication test from Beijing to Fuzhou is only 38 milliseconds – 38 thousandths of a second. "It is critical for extremely precise industries and applications, such as remote surgery, so to ensure safe operation.

Besides, unmanned tractors, agricultural drones, and robotic tuna that can be patrolled underwater were displayed at the exhibition. Digital technologies applied to agriculture can help liberate manpower and improve efficiency.

When used in culture, digital technology can help break the limitations of physical space, show the content of cultural relics "more vividly," and experience classic cultural relics in an immersive and interactive way, according to an exhibitor.

(With input from Xinhua)