BEIJING, July 6 -- The number of 5G base stations in China exceeded 2.84 million by the end of May amid the country's efforts to build the world's largest and most advanced network infrastructure.

The news was revealed by Wang Jiangping, vice minister of industry and information technology, during the ongoing Global Digital Economy Conference 2023 held in Beijing.

With more technologically-advanced network infrastructure, China has been accelerating the development of the digital economy in recent years.

The scale of China's digital economy grew to 50.2 trillion yuan (about 6.93 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2022. The share of the digital economy in the country's GDP rose to 41.5 percent, making it an important engine for stable growth and transformation.

Themed "Data Drives Development, Intelligence Leads the Future," the Global Digital Economy Conference 2023 will conclude on Friday, proposing to build an open innovation network for the digital economy across the world.