High-end manufacturing must be integrated into the development of city clusters, regional linkages and digital innovation, as well as the Belt and Road Initiative for China to achieve breakthroughs in fields that it has been lagging, a leading economist said.

Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said city clusters will play a huge role in optimizing the country's core competitiveness by creating complementary advantages and eliminating homogeneous development.

As high-end intelligent equipment, new generation of information technology, new materials, new energy vehicles and other emerging industries are highly sought after in many parts of the world, regional development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Yangtze River Delta city and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city clusters will help create a number of leading cities supported by the agglomeration of industries in surrounding areas.

To give full play to China's existing innovation advantages, Wei urged the country to further upgrade its manufacturing industry via digital technology, because it is economically beneficial to combine digital technology with the contemporary industrial system to raise the added value of industrial products.

"Artificial intelligence and big data analysis can efficiently boost the matching degree between consumers' diversified preferences and manufacturers' production capacity, so as to build a better industrial chain, supply chain and value chain supported by digital solutions," he said.

The added value of China's high-tech manufacturing grew 6.1 percent year-on-year in August, 1.7 percentage points higher than that of all industrial enterprises above the designated size, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics last week.

Government data also showed a swift growth in high-tech and high value-added new industrial products last month. 3D printers led the growth by expanding 152.9 percent in August, followed by smart bands and solar industrial ultra-clear glass.