The Value, Current Challenges, and Paths for Promoting Digital Economic Development in Western China: Based on the Perspective of Regional Coordinated Development

Yang Xiaoyong, Liu Qun

Journal of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Vol. 28, Issue 01, pp. 3 - 18,50 (2026)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.jsufe.2026.01.001

Summary

In recent years, under the historic opportunities of global informatization and digitization, China has accurately grasped the stage characteristics of economic development and gained insight into the trends and laws of the digital economy. As a result, the development momentum of the digital economy has increased, new breakthroughs have been made in digital technology innovation, and its integration with the real economy has deepened. Meanwhile, digital transformation, network upgrading, and intelligent transformation are accelerating, the data industry is gradually expanding, and a national integrated data market is rapidly being constructed. These have enabled the digital economy to achieve leapfrog development, with its scale firmly ranking second in the world. However, there is still a considerable gap in the development of the digital economy among regions in China, which is particularly evident in western regions. Western regions, as a key area of strategic significance in China, inevitably need to take advantage of technological and industrial innovation to vigorously develop the digital economy, so as to achieve economic growth and social progress. Thus, it is essential to clarify that western regions not only share the common characteristics of digital economy development in other regions, but also contains the unique development context of the digital economy in western regions. The digital economy brings new technological resources, industrial momentum, and job opportunities to the development of western regions, providing new growth points for the western economy. However, there are significant differences between the digital economy in the west and that in the east in terms of development scale, location, and contributing factors. Moreover, the development of the digital economy has led to challenges such as industrial differentiation, administrative barriers, investment risks, and uneven distribution, making it difficult for the digital economy in the west to grow. In response, western regions should promote leapfrog development of the digital economy by deepening industrial transformation, facilitating resource mobility, regulating capital investment, and optimizing distribution policies, so as to narrow regional development gaps and achieve high-quality development of the western economy.

Keywords

western regions; digital economy; high-quality development; regional coordinated development