Vice-Premier Liu He made the remarks while attending a symposium organized by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing. The CPPCC is China's top political advisory body.

Liu called for more efforts to adapt to all-round changes brought about by the digital economy, make breakthroughs in key and core technologies, as well as properly handle the relationship between the government and the market.

Miao Wei, former minister of industry and information technology, said that along with the rapid development of the digital economy, it is necessary to establish a more secure and efficient market system for data elements－and the confirmation of data-related rights is the key to nurture the data elements market.

Miao, who is also vice-chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee, called for efforts to make full use of advanced technologies like blockchain to better define data-related rights.

The scale of China's digital economy reached 39.2 trillion yuan ($5.8 trillion) in 2020, up 9.7 percent year-on-year, ranking second in the world, according to a white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

"More efforts should be made to accelerate the intelligent upgrade of infrastructure and create a globally competitive innovation environment in the cutting-edge science and technology field, which will be an inevitable choice to unleash the potential of the digital economy and build a new national competitive advantage," said Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc.

Li, who is also a member of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC, said intelligent infrastructure based on the vehicle-road coordination system is expected to improve traffic efficiency by 15 to 30 percent, thus bringing 2.4 percent to 4.8 percent in absolute economic growth.

He noted the autonomous driving sector has become the commanding height that global automobile enterprises are competing to reach, and the popularization of self-driving technologies will greatly liberate the labor force and reduce traffic accidents.

"The digital economy has served as a significant force for hedging against downward economic pressure and bolstering the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries," said Wang Yiming, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and a member of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.

Wang said more efforts are needed to facilitate the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, which will be conducive to strengthening the resilience of industrial and supply chains, offsetting rising labor costs and injecting fresh impetus into economic growth.

Zhou Hongyi, founder of cybersecurity company 360 Security Group and a member of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, said the integration of the digital economy with a wide range of sectors will push the digitalization of industries, while highlighting the importance of building a national data security system.