To connect this digital Silk Road, Lu said he expected to see Chinese Internet companies and European enterprises going to each other's markets.

China's Internet users had reached 649 million by the end of last year, representing one-fifth of the world's total, according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences late last month.

While nearly 80 percent of Chinese Internet users access the Web via mobile phones, development of Internet technology and information flow in countries and regions traversed by the "Belt and Road" varies considerably, resulting in a conspicuous "digital divide", Ren said.

"On the basis of respecting their network sovereignty, history, culture and religious belief, Chinese Internet companies should forge closer links with their counterparts in the countries, increase communication and cooperation, and build a democratic, peaceful, open and co-operative Internet governance system," Ren said.

Ren also asked Chinese Internet media – news portals and other websites that inform, entertain and host discussion groups and blogs – to better present China for the audience in the countries and regions along the "Belt and Road".

Hou Weigui, president of ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company headquartered in Shenzhen, said Internet speed in most countries and regions along the "Belt and Road" is less than 10 per cent of that in developed countries.

"ZTE and a few leading Chinese IT companies have developed world market for more than two decades, and Chinese enterprises have expertise and experience to inject 'energy' for the construction of the 'digital Silk Road'," the Beijing-based Seeking Truth journal quoted Hou as saying in its May issue.