HANGZHOU -- China will further ease market access and improve policies for cross-border e-commerce retail imports, Premier Li Qiang said Thursday, pledging to share opportunities in its market with other countries.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, Li said the rapid growth of digital trade had created new opportunities, but had also brought widening development gaps, new trade barriers and gaps in international rules into sharper focus.

Li called for closer international cooperation to strengthen digital connectivity and advance the alignment and mutual recognition of standards.

The international community should enhance North-South cooperation in the field of digital trade, and provide more support to developing countries in terms of technology, infrastructure and personnel training, he said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Adylbek Aleshovich Kasymaliev, also addressed the opening ceremony, which was attended by more than 1,200 representatives from nearly 50 countries and regions, as well as international organizations.

The expo, an event dedicated to promoting digital trade and industrial cooperation, is running until Sept 27, with artificial intelligence as its main theme.

China's digital trade has expanded rapidly in recent years. The country's digitally deliverable service trade value expanded at an average annual rate of 11.2 percent between 2016 and 2025, outpacing the global average by 1.8 percentage points.