The global economy will find a new driver of growth fueled by continuous improvement of digitization and intellectualization, with digital technology showing huge potential for development, said Chen Shengqiang, CEO of JD Digits, a leading Chinese digital technology company.

"Data has become a new factor of production, but exploration of data value by human beings is still confined to a few service industries such as finance and retail. We have just started in the fields of agriculture and industry, and have a long way to go," Chen said at the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia, in Boao, Hainan province.

Chen emphasized the development of digital technology will promote integration of online and offline industries, production and sales, human intelligence and machine learning.

He added that thanks to the development of smart chips, 5G, sensors, internet of things and other technologies, the amount of data generated by the interaction between the human world and the physical world will grow at an exponential rate.