The Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Digital Economy is inaugurated in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Sept 1. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

The Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Digital Economy was inaugurated in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Sept 1.

The bureau, which was established a day before the 2022 World Digital Economy Conference & 12th China Smart City and Intelligent Economy Expo, comes as part of efforts to grow the digital economy.

Ningbo posted an average annual growth rate of 18 percent in the added value of the digital economy's core industries over the past five years. In 2021, the revenue of the core industries of the city's digital economy reached 430 billion yuan ($66.15 billion).

The local government aims to increase the added value of the city's digital economy to more than 1 trillion yuan, and lift the revenue of its core industries to over 1 trillion yuan by the end of 2026.

The added value of the digital economy's core industries are expected to account for more than 15 percent of the city's GDP by that time.

To achieve these goals, the city will ramp up innovation in fields including industrial internet, software and integrated circuits, accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure and facilitate the integration of the digital economy and the real economy, said a head official at the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Digital Economy.