Analysis of the Mechanisms of Digital Countryside Enabling High-Quality Development of Rural Economy

Abstract

With the rapid development of information technology, the promotion of digital rural construction in the digital era is conducive to the high-quality development of the rural economy. In contemporary times, the digital countryside strategy has become an important initiative for China's high-quality development and the realization of high-quality development of rural revitalization. Based on the balanced panel data of western China from 2013 to 2022, this paper constructs a comprehensive indicator system containing digital infrastructure construction, economic digitization, governance digitization and life digitization, measures the level of digital countryside development of each province in the western region using the entropy method, and empirically analyzes its impact on the total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery using the fixed effect model. The results of the study show that the level of digital village development has a significant positive promotion effect on the total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, and there are differences between different provinces. Specifically, the construction of digital villages effectively enhances the development level of rural economy by improving the efficiency of agricultural production, optimizing industrial structure, enhancing market competitiveness. Further robustness tests use gross domestic product (GDP) as a proxy indicator and the TOPSIS method to reassess the level of digital rural development, and the results all indicate that the conclusion has a high degree of reliability. Based on this, this paper proposes policy recommendations to strengthen the construction of digital infrastructure, enhance farmers' digital literacy, promote the deep integration of digital technology and rural industry, improve the policy support system, and strengthen the regional synergistic development in order to optimize the construction of digital villages, better empower the development of rural economy in the western region, and promote the in-depth implementation of the strategy for revitalization of the countryside.