China's latest push to expand the application scenarios of data elements and give full play to the multiplier effect of data is expected to foster new growth drivers as well as bolster its high-quality economic development, experts said.

The comments follow a guideline issued by 17 government departments, including the National Data Administration and the Cyberspace Administration of China, late on Thursday which emphasized efforts to activate the potential of data elements and spur the integration of data in various industries.

The annual growth rate of the data industry is estimated to surpass 20 percent by the end of 2026, according to the guideline.

The country will create more than 300 typical application scenarios for data elements, double the scale of data transactions, and nurture a batch of data merchants with strong innovation capacities and third-party professional service organizations, it said.

According to the guideline, more efforts will be made to advance the application of data elements in 12 key fields, such as industrial manufacturing, modern agriculture, trade circulation, transportation, financial services, technological innovation, and culture and tourism.

The country will support the construction of scientific databases with international influence, promote the development and training of artificial intelligence-powered large models by leveraging scientific data, as well as guide and encourage social capital to invest in the data industry, and support data merchants to go public and raise funds, it added.

The guideline also calls for a greater thrust to improve the level of data supply, optimize the data circulation environment and strengthen data security.

Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University's International Business School, said: "In the digital era, data elements have become a new factor of production and a key resource driving economic development. The core objective of the guideline is to fully tap the value of data and let data play a bigger role in bolstering the innovative development of diversified industries through the integration, analysis and application of data."

Pan said the in-depth integration of data with traditional industries will improve production efficiency, optimize the allocation of resources, and create novel business models and new social value.

"For instance, enterprises can learn about market demand and consumer behavior more accurately through the analysis of large amounts of data, so as to optimize research and development, production and sale of products," he added.

Expanding the application scenarios of data is a prerequisite for giving full play to the multiplier effect of data elements, said Ouyang Rihui, assistant dean of the China Center for Internet Economy Research at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Ouyang also underlined the importance of accelerating the building of a unified domestic data elements market and putting data resources to better use.

Noting that data elements have been gradually integrated into the real economy and are playing an increasingly vital role in bolstering industrial upgrades, Ouyang said the launch of the new guideline will be conducive to facilitating the development of a digital economy and fully unleashing the value of China's massive data resources.

With the blossoming of big data, artificial intelligence and other innovative digital technologies, the digital economy is gradually becoming an integral driving force of economic growth.

China's digital economy reached 50.2 trillion yuan ($7.01 trillion) in 2022, ranking second in the world and accounting for 41.5 percent of the country's GDP, according to a report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.