A view of Deqing county, Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

Huzhou's Deqing county was recently ranked first in a national evaluation for digital rural construction, according to local media reports.

The evaluation was implemented on 117 county-level areas that were included in a national pilot program launched in 2020 to facilitate digitalized development in rural areas.

In addition to Deqing, three other places in Zhejiang - Pinghu, a county-level city in Jiaxing, Lin'an district in Hangzhou, and Cixi, a county-level city in Ningbo – achieved high grades in the appraisal.

As of February, Deqing had developed more than 120 digital rural applications, with the broadband network being made accessible to 98.4 percent of villages across the county.

In March, Deqing unveiled the nation's first provincial standards regarding the promotion of digitalization in rural construction and governance.

A pattern created by the local government in which a village is managed through a map based on technologies like big data and internet of things has been selected as an exemplary example of the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Looking ahead, Deqing will encourage more market entities to participate in the digital rural construction and accelerate the development of digital agricultural factories and future farms, according to a local official.