‘Guanghan's specialty, Chansi Rabbit, is refreshingly spicy and aromatic. Take a look at this Deyang specialty—beef jerky', said a contestant recently during a live-streaming booth at the 'Artisan Cup' Digital Industry Technical Skills Competition for employees in Deyang City, where participants showcased their marketing abilities on-site. The competition also featured events such as AI trainer and network and information security administrator categories, attracting over 100 contestants.

AI Trainer Competition Venue

The intense competition reflects the vibrancy of Deyang's digital economy. In 2024, the city's total digital economy reached RMB 147.98 billion. In 2025, Deyang was successfully selected as a national pilot city for SME digital transformation. Over the past three years, 24 local institutions have enrolled more than 32,000 students in digital-economy-related majors.

A deeper transformation is underway—using Tianfu Digital Valley as fertile ground, Deyang is shifting from merely 'building nests to attract phoenixes' to systematically 'cultivating trees for phoenixes', establishing a new ecosystem that integrates industry and talent development.

Tianfu Digital Valley Cloud-based Tianfu Intelligent Computing Center

As Sichuan Province's first industrial functional zone focused primarily on the digital economy, Tianfu Digital Valley has achieved a breakthrough from zero to substantial presence within five years. To date, the park has attracted more than 200 registered enterprises. In 2024, its digital economy exceeded RMB 26 billion, demonstrating significant agglomeration effects. Deyang Guoke Digital Industry Development Group Co., Ltd. has been consecutively listed among Sichuan’s Top 100 Digital Economy Enterprises. 'R&D innovation, technological accumulation, and market-oriented capabilities are our core strengths,’ said Zhang Qiang, the company's deputy general manager. He added that the enterprise's strategy aligns closely with the park's planning, enabling it to grow nine subsidiaries covering areas such as smart cities and data-element services. In 2022, the Sichuan Data Element Industrial Park was established in Tianfu Digital Valley, and the company led the creation of the province's first data trading company, bringing together over 300 'data merchants' and listing more than 3,300 data products. Currently, the company is focusing on developing high-quality datasets and diverse application scenarios.

The competition venue for internet marketing specialists (live-streaming sales personnel)

Rapid industrial growth urgently requires talent support. 'Deyang offers strong support for the AI industry, but there remains a shortage of applied talents who understand both technology and industry needs' admitted the head of an AI data services firm. Although Deyang hosts 30 vocational colleges, outdated curricula and insufficient hands-on training with real-world projects often mean graduates require additional 'retraining' by employers.

Deyang is addressing this gap through industry-education integration. At the 'Smart Heart' of Tianfu Digital Valley, a joint training base built by Deyang Kemao Vocational College and the park is about to open, implementing a teaching model of 'projects in classrooms, full-scenario coverage', allowing students to manage end-to-end real corporate projects. Enterprises are also proactively engaging with campuses: companies like Jingyu Digital Technology have co-established training bases with multiple institutions, moving tasks such as data annotation into academic settings to enable 'learning by doing' and ensure graduates are 'job-ready upon graduation'. In November 2025, the Deyang Digital Economy Industry-Education Alliance was formed, integrating resources from educational institutions, enterprises, and the park to promote collaborative innovation in fields like industrial internet and artificial intelligence, while dynamically adjusting academic programs. Through regular matchmaking sessions and published talent demand lists, the park is advancing co-developed curricula and mutual faculty appointments, aiming to establish a closed-loop industrial ecosystem of 'local cultivation, local employment, and local development'.

【本文部分内容由AI辅助生成，特此声明。The author(s) generated part of the content in this work with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), which is hereby declared.】