China's tech prowess aided global battle against virus, says Didi's head

China's digital services and infrastructure have played a great role in helping the world to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, said industry insiders during the four-day Bloomberg New Economy Forum.

Jean Liu, president of Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing Inc, said that the company began shuttling healthcare workers around the city with around 140,000 volunteer drivers when there was no public transportation.

As of now, the Beijing-based company has provided nearly 4 million medical care and community services in China, Latin America, Australia, Japan and Russia during the epidemic, Liu said.

"As the world's largest flexible employment platform, we have offered several millions of jobs to laid-off workers as well as many female drivers raising their children. We will continue to help them have a better life," she said.

Despite challenges brought by the COVID-19, China's economy has quickly recovered with a slew of industries resuming work and production right after the outbreak.

"Many of those technological innovations have been applied before but have accelerated because of the epidemic," said Neil Shen, founding and managing partner at Sequoia Capital China.

Online education, for instance, has clearly been accelerated during the pandemic. Shen noted.

In the past, it was used as a tutoring tool for children but now it is becoming mainstream with junior high schools, senior high schools, and even colleges adopting those programs and tools to reach out more groups, he said.

In the post-COVID-19 era, Shen said he is optimistic that forefront technologies will gear up a greater role but it will take a bit more time for such services to be more appealing to a broader base of users.