China’s digital industries maintained steady growth this year, with revenue expected to rise by around nine percent year on year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed on Friday.

Specifically, China’s total telecommunications business volume and software industry revenue are expected to grow by about nine percent and 12 percent, respectively.

By the end of November, the country had built 4.83 million 5G base stations, accounting for 37.4 percent of all mobile base stations. The number of 5G mobile phone users reached 1.193 billion, making up 65.3 percent of total mobile phone users.

"The large-scale application of the industrial internet is gaining momentum, with more than 20,000 industrial 5G private network projects and over 8,000 5G factories now in operation nationwide," said Li Lecheng, Minister of Industry and Information Technology.

Li added that China has fully rolled out its "AI + manufacturing" initiative, accelerating the application of AI-powered terminals and agents. A 60-billion-yuan (about 8.54 billion U.S. dollars) investment fund has been established to support the AI industry, while AI adoption among manufacturing enterprises has reached 30 percent.