Nobel Prize Laureate in physics George Smoot addresses the main forum of the 2019 World Digital Economy Conference in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Sept 6.［Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn］

The coastal province of Zhejiang is leading the nation in terms of digital economic growth.

According to Gao, the scale of the digital economy in the province soared 19.26 percent to 2.33 trillion yuan in 2018, accounting for 41.54 percent of its total GDP.

Zhejiang aims to boost that number to more than 4 trillion yuan within the next few years.

The World Digital Economy Conference comes amid the province's efforts to facilitate global cooperation and exchange in digital economy, the vice governor revealed.

Luminaries such as Nobel Prize laureate George Smoot, Pan Yunhe, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Jahannes Vizethum, executive director of DIF Industries 4.0, also delivered speeches at the forum.

The conference coincided with the China Smart City and Intelligent Economy Expo, which kicked off on the same day in Ningbo.

Covering an area of nearly 30,000 square meters, the expo, scheduled to run until Sept 8, has attracted over 400 tech companies and organizations, including Baidu, Huawei and ZTE, to showcase their latest accomplishments and products.

The expo, now in its ninth year, has become a significant platform for promoting cooperation and exchange in smart city construction and intelligent economy in China.