The 16th Straits Youth Forum takes place in Xiamen on June 5 as part of the 10th Straits Forum. [Photo/new.cn]

More than 600 young men from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao attended the 16th Straits Youth Forum held in Xiamen on June 5 as part of the 10th Straits Forum.

The digital economy became the main forum's hottest topic and there are high hopes that all the cross-Straits participants will collaborate in helping to develop each other's economic development.

Xiong Li, chief executive officer (CEO) of NetDragon Websoft Inc, said that there are huge cooperation opportunities for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan in the field of the digital economy.

The digital economy on the Chinese mainland generated 27.2 trillion yuan ($4.27 trillion) in 2017, up by 20.3 percent year-on-year and its face recognition, voice recognition and driverless technologies lead the world.

Despite these impressive figures coming from the Chinese mainland, the digital economy actually emerged earlier in Taiwan, and its semiconductor industry tops the world.