More efforts are needed to further integrate big data, artificial intelligence, and the internet with the real economy, which will inject new impetus into China’s economic growth, a government official said on April 24.

“The big data sector has entered a critical development phase,” Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of industry and information technology, told a forum at the first Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, Fujian province.

“We will take the opportunity to boost the development of emerging information technological sectors, including big data, the internet, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. We aim to foster deep integration between big data and the real economy,” Chen said.

The digital economy, which is particularly driven by the big data sector, is playing an increasingly significant role in driving China’s economy growth.

According to a recent report from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China’s digital economy was worth 27.2 trillion yuan ($4.31 trillion) in 2017, accounting for 32.9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Chen proposed to make a big push to develop big data in four aspects, thus creating new growth while upgrading traditional ones, and bringing about innovation-driven development.

The first is to promote the innovation and development of big data, foster innovation in cutting-edge technologies, accelerate the research and development of core products and boost deep integration between industries, colleges and institutes.

The second is to push for the integration of big data into the real economy, and speed up the construction of the industry internet and industry data.

The third is to stimulate the vitality of the market, foster the establishment of big data public service platforms, and encourage small and medium-sized companies to enter market segments more deeply.

The fourth is to promote the development of big data security, and strengthen the development of big data security products to build an efficient data security management mechanism.

Wu Hequan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said big data, AI, mobile internet, cloud computing and internet of things technologies will be deeply integrated into the real economy, becoming new engines for the digital economy era.