In the first quarter of the year, the electronics information sector grew rapidly in Lishui city – located in East China's Zhejiang province – becoming a new driving force for its overall economic growth, local media reported recently.

In Q1, Lishui's core industry in its digital economy brought in total operating income of 2.18 billion yuan ($336.9 million), up 40.8 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the added value of manufacturing in the sector during the period reached 320 million yuan, an increase of 37.2 percent.

Revenue from the software business of the city's software and information technology service industry was 327 million yuan, 42.17 percent higher than last year. Elsewhere in Q1, the main business income of the electronics information manufacturing industry and total industrial output value were 1.99 billion yuan and 2.09 billion yuan, up 79.44 and 65.02 percent year-on-year, respectively.

In the software and information technology services sector, embedded system software led the growth.

In Q1, the city's embedded system software maintained a good growth trend, achieving an income of 90.07 million yuan, an increase of 194.82 percent over the same period last year. This was the main driving force for the growth of the city's software business income.

The products of the electronic information manufacturing industry in the city in Q1 were mainly concentrated in electronics components, electronics devices, special equipment for the electronics industry, electronics measuring instruments and intelligent hardware equipment.

Of these, the output of electronic components from January to March was worth 383 million yuan and  revenue totaled 234 million yuan, up 86.9 percent – accounting for 58.6 percent of total revenue.