New information infrastructure crucial for integration of digital,
real economies: experts

A new generation of information infrastructure needs to be built to better integrate the digital and real economies, with the market taking the lead and the government playing a guiding role, experts have said.

Digital transformation can help improve the quality and efficiency of the real economy, Justin Yifu Lin, dean of Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, said during an online seminar in the past week on the integration of the digital and real economies.

In 2020, the scale of China's digital economy hit 39.2 trillion yuan (about 6.1 trillion U.S. dollars), accounting for 38.6 percent of the country's GDP, and its growth rate reached 9.7 percent.

To facilitate the better integration of the digital and real economies, Lu Chuncong, head of the China Academy of Industrial Internet, called for the construction of a new generation of information infrastructure, including infrastructure related to 5G technology, the industrial internet and the Internet of Things.

He noted that larger enterprises should take the lead in the digital transformation and the construction of innovation platforms.

The country also needs to cultivate more systematic solutions providers for the digital transformation, and build a better market for data-related trading, Lu said.