China's digital economy to shift from consumers to producers: economist

China's consumer-oriented digital economy will gradually transform into a producer-oriented one, said Bai Chongen, dean of Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management and a national political adviser, on Wednesday.

"The transformation will take place partly because the ongoing industrial upgrading needs more applications of digital technologies in enterprises."

"Meanwhile technological advances – such as 5G, supercomputing and artificial intelligence – have sharpened the ability of digital technologies to serve enterprises," Bai said.

Such a transformation will call for more digital technologies professionals, especially those with expertise in both technologies and management, who are in relative shortage in the labor market, said Bai.

"Our school will make more efforts to foster such talents," Bai said during an interview before the closing ceremony of the second session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC.