China's national data bureau was inaugurated on Wednesday.

The bureau, administered by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is responsible for advancing the development of data-related fundamental institutions, coordinating the integration, sharing, development and application of data resources, and pushing forward the planning and building of a Digital China, the digital economy and a digital society. 

The central government has given the bureau some very important functions, including coordinating the construction of a digital China and the development of the digital economy, promoting the marketization and value of data elements and becoming a new driving force for economic and social development, according to Liu Liehong, director at the newly built bureau, the once chairman at the state-owned telecom giant China Unicom.

Remove 'information islands'

Data has become the most important and core factor of production, joining land, labor, capital and technology.

The bureau will help improve data collaboration in central and local government departments, according to He Baohong, head of the Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

It will also help remove issues of "information islands," a body of information that needs to be shared but has no connection with other department, He added.

Head of the bureau, Liu, believes that the bureau will help promote international cooperation in digital economy. 

He advocated inter-government cooperation in policy and industry and experience exchange, thus achieving complementary advantages and win-win cooperation.

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(With input from Xinhua)