By LI Linxu

As an important initiative toward China's rural revitalization goals, digital village construction is transforming all aspects of country life.

The development level of the country's digital village reached 39.1 percent in 2021, according to the Report on the Development of Digital Villages in China (2022), recently released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The report presents a full review of the progress and achievements of the country's digital village development in eight areas of, rural digital infrastructure, smart agriculture, new types of agribusinesses, rural digital governance, rural cyberculture, digital public services, smart green villages, and digital village development environment.

Local villagers manage vegetable seedling in a smart seedling center, Weining county, Guizhou province. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

In recent years, the construction of digital infrastructure in rural areas has witnessed rapid growth. By the end of 2022, all urban areas at county level had 5G coverage, and every village enjoyed broadband access, according to the report.

Driven by increasingly convenient digital infrastructure, new types of agribusinesses continue to emerge, and rural e-commerce maintains its leading position in the rural digital economy. Latest statistics show that national rural online retail sales reached 2.17 trillion RMB in 2022.

With the help of digital technologies, the development of smart agriculture is accelerating in rural areas, according to the report, noting that the informatization rate of agricultural production increased to 25.4 percent in 2021.

The efficiency of digital governance in rural areas is also making big headway, as 68.2 percent of the six types of agriculture-related government service items, including social security, healthcare, and land circulation, were handled online nationwide in 2021, said the report.

Meanwhile, digital public services are gaining traction in rural areas. The number of village-level comprehensive service offices that utilize digital technologies increased to 483,000 in 2021, covering around 86 percent of the country's administrative villages.