Zhejiang feeling benefits of fiber-optic revolution

Wang said Zhejiang has been making such efforts and he believed the key lies in rural areas.

"We have been striving to build digital villages, so that digital technology can better drive rural vitalization and integrated regional development," Wang said.

As an example, he pointed out that e-commerce sales of Zhejiang's rural areas surpassed 1 trillion yuan ($137.9 billion) in 2021.

In Suichang county of Lishui city, there are now more than 4,500 registered e-commerce shops.

With the conveniences brought by the internet, farmers have seen a rise in agricultural product prices by nearly 30 percent, which means higher incomes for them. Wang said that smartphones have become a new farming tool for villagers.

The report to the recent 20th CPC National Congress vowed to accelerate the development of the digital economy, further integrate it with the real economy, and build internationally competitive digital industry clusters.

The digital reform in Zhejiang, which has enjoyed profound advantages in manufacturing, has seized opportunities arising from technological revolution and industrial transformation.

In recent years, the provincial government has cooperated with manufacturers, science and technology institutes and financial institutions to generate momentum for the manufacturing sector via digital transformation.

For example, the province has launched the Future Factory application platform to provide manufacturers with full-process digital services. So far, the platform has benefited more than 60,000 local enterprises, whose average production efficiency has increased by 54 percent from 2020 and general costs lowered by 19 percent.

The province has completed construction of 41 future factories, covering various industries such as information and communication technology, new energy vehicles and intelligent manufacturing.