The World Internet Conference is ongoing in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province. Filled with the latest technologies, the expo brings us into the new digital era. Nobel Prize laureate Andrew Michael Spence, speaking on the sidelines of the conference, said that concerns about the digital divide between economies can be managed.

He said there is a gap between emerging countries and developed countries and even between lower- income countries and middle-income countries which, because they have the resources on the public sector side to build the infrastructure, are lumped together with the developed economies.

Spence also pointed out the common issues facing most countries in terms of the digital divide.

"The problem would be a combination of the inability to transfer enough technology and inability to garner the resources to build the required infrastructure that you really need," he said.

Bad governance would also be a common problem in countries that are struggling with growth, he added.

When it comes to China, he said the country "is probably pushing the frontiers in many digital areas."  

Spence won the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He is also a member of the Luohan Academy's academic committee. 

(CGTN's Michael Wang contributed to this story.)