A senior Shanghai official and deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) has called on the city to seize opportunities offered by the growing trend for online economic development.

"New business forms and models integrating online new economy with manufacturing, business, finance, culture, education, health, and travel are the basic logic of future industrial development," said Chen Mingbo, a deputy to the NPC and a deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai government.

For Chen, online economic development is the trend, and he said Shanghai must seize the economic and industrial opportunities it offers.

Public data shows that China's digital economy now accounts for more than one-third of its GDP, and has become a new engine for improving the quality and efficiency of China's economy and promoting economic transformation and upgrading.

According to Chen, Shanghai plans to spend three years to develop unmanned factories, the industrial internet, online entertainment and finance, e-commerce retail sales of fresh products and other industries that have a foundation and advantages in the city.

Meanwhile, Shanghai will develop online exhibitions, education and medical treatment to achieve the integration of online and offline platforms. Also, new business models that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, including telecommuting, and contactless distribution will be further developed.

New infrastructure, including 5G, big data centers, artificial intelligence and the industrial internet, will form the foundation of the new economy.

"It is necessary to build a national industrial empowerment center, which will be open to all kinds of industrial internet platforms and application enterprises, so that medium, small and micro businesses can also afford new infrastructure, and industrial big data will gain value through circulation," Chen said.