Zhangjiagang, a port city in East China's Jiangsu province, has been accelerating its digitization process, with digital economy accounting for about 43 percent of its GDP last year, Suzhou Daily reported on Jan 1.

Depending on new technologies like big data, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and industrial internet, Tencent Cloud (Zhangjiagang) Industry Cloud Base, which is being built by the local government, aims to create an influential domestic-leading industrial internet service platform for the upgrading of Zhangjiagang's economic development strategy of transitioning from "made in Zhangjiagang" to "smart manufacturing in Zhangjiagang".

In recent years, Zhangjiagang has been committed to developing its digital economy. In cooperation with well-known domestic ICT enterprises, such as Huawei and Tencent, Zhangjiagang has made great process in the construction of a smart city, the transformation of smart manufacturing, and the upgrading of infrastructure to win the honorary title of "China Leading Smart City".

Digital economy is one of the eight key industrial chains in Zhangjiagang. Due to the implementation of the "Industry Chain Leader System", in which one specific provincial leader is responsible for one key industrial chain and provides related policy support, as well as optimized policies provided by the local government and in-depth industrial integration, the city's digital economy scale has increased. 

The city will adhere to the key industry policies of "local cultivation" and "external introduction" to accelerate smart transformation and digital upgrading accordingly. In addition, it is estimated that the revenue of its digital economy will increase by 90 billion yuan (about $14 billion) in the next three years.