President Xi Jinping has stressed the need for G20 economies to discuss and develop international rules for digital governance and actively foster an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for digital development.

Xi made the appeal on Saturday in a speech delivered via video link at the first session of the 16th G20 Leaders' Summit on Saturday.

China attaches great importance to international cooperation on digital economy, and has decided to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, he said, adding that Beijing stands ready to work with all parties for the healthy and orderly development of digital economy, he said.

"The G20 should join forces to unleash the potential for innovation-driven growth and draw up rules based on extensive participation and broad-based consensus to foster an enabling environment for innovation-driven development," he said.

"Forming exclusive blocs or even drawing ideological lines will only cause division and create more obstacles, which will do no good but only harm scientific and technological innovation," he added.

The G20 should shoulder responsibilities in the digital era, quicken the development of new types of digital infrastructure, promote deeper integration of digital technologies with the real economy, and help developing countries eliminate the digital divide, Xi said.