Optics Valley Square as the night falls. [Photo/Optics Valley of China]

The East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as the Optics Valley of China, or OVC) is currently rewarding 27 local digital economy demonstration application projects with bonuses exceeding 15 million yuan ($2.09 million).

The rewards are granted to 17 district-level "internet +" demonstration application programs, six district-level artificial intelligence (AI) innovative application programs, and four municipal AI demonstration application scenarios.

OVC's digital economy scale continues to expand. Last year, its total digital economy revenue surpassed 400 billion yuan, up 35 percent year-on-year. The added value of the industry stood at 130 billion yuan, accounting for 55 percent of its GDP.

In addition, the added value of core sectors in OVC's digital economy was over 80 billion yuan in 2021, which is more than half of Wuhan's total. OVC has become a digital economy powerhouse for the city.

Now OVC has become the world's largest optical fiber and cable manufacturing base, China's biggest optoelectronic device and equipment production base, and the country's biggest R&D and production base for small and medium-sized display panels. It has also gathered 28 State-level innovation platforms, and has cultivated 595 digital economy enterprises above a designated size, which is one third of the valley's total.

This year, the valley has brought in 16 leading digital economy enterprises, whose total investment volume has reached 29.62 billion yuan. CCID Consulting released the 2022 research report on China's digital economy development on Nov 16, suggesting that Wuhan has become one of the new first-tier cities in digital economy.