China Internet Development Fund (CIDF) signed a letter of intent with ChinaEU, at the presence of Lu Wei (middle rear), director of Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). Photo by Gao Shuang / China Daily

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) aims to play a role in promoting the digital and cyber Silk Road, China's top Internet regulator Lu Wei says at the first China-EU digital cooperation roundtable held on July 6 in Brussels.

Following Chinese Premier's visit to EU headquarters last Monday, Lu's visit to Brussels is the first high-level visit of a Chinese official to Brussels after the EU-China summit.

"We will push forward the digitalization, information, exchange and collaboration of cyberspace between China and the European Union," says Lu Wei, director of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

To connect this digital and cyber Silk Road across the two continents, the head of the CAC says they hope to see more Chinese Internet companies going out to Europe, and more European enterprises entering the Chinese market, too.

Stressing the determination to benefit 1.1 billion Internet users in both China and EU through broader cooperation in the digital sector, China's Internet helmsman says they are in favor of a platform built based on mutual trust and a win-win vision.

"There are still 800 million people unconnected to the Internet in Europe and China, and there is a huge space for our cooperation. We look forward to achieving a better synergy between Europe's Digital Agenda and China' Internet Plus Strategy.

"And we will make our contribution to digitalization, cyber development and cyberspace security," he says.

The roundtable, organized by the ChinaEU Association for Digital and Internet Society of China (ISC), brings together more than 50 top-level stakeholders in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, apart from representatives of Chinese and European banks.

A number of senior executives of Chinese ICT giants travel with Lu Wei to Brussels, including those from China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, ZTE, Huawei, and Xiaomi.

It was announced at the summit that China and the EU will establish a joint investment fund, in order to connect China's One Belt, One Road initiative with the EU's 315 billion euro investment plan.

The objective of the roundtable is to seek for implementation of the conclusions reached at the summit.

It explores new areas of cooperation in 5G, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, big data, e-commerce, digital investment and high-tech startups, smart cities and smart energies in particular.

"We believe the digital sector is the key," says Luigi Gambardella, president of ChinaEU. "The time for action is now."

In the presence of director Lu, the China Internet Development Fund (CIDF) signed a letter of intent with ChinaEU. China Unicom and Nokia signed a Momorandum of Understanding, which will deepen their technological cooperation in the next five years.

Lu Wei also met Andrus Ansip, EU's commissioner for a single digital market, and discussed improved connections between EU and China in the digital economy.

The two are expected to reach more consensuses to establish a high-level digital dialogue mechanism, as well as a mechanism to support business startups of high tech companies through various incentives. (China Daily)