The testing prototype of China's Mozi quantum cryptography communication device is on display during an exhibition at the Shanghai venue of the 2019 National Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week in Shanghai, China, on June 16, 2019. File Photo: IC

China will accelerate home-grown technology innovations to fire up its economic development, as it eyes a conspicuous improvement in innovation capability in the next five years and plans to make major breakthroughs in core technologies and rise to the forefront of innovative countries by 2035.

A communique of the fifth plenum of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has set the tone for the nation to become a full-blown innovation trendsetter, amid rising competition and rivalry with the US, Chinese experts said. 

Innovation will play a pivotal role in building a modern China, and independence and improvement in science and technology will serve as a strategic support for national development, read the communique released on Thursday. 

The nation plans to strengthen businesses' technological innovation capabilities, spur creative vitality of talent, and improve the institutional mechanism for science and technology innovation. 

The plenum adopted the CPC Central Committee's proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the nation's long-range visions throughout 2035.

By 2035, the economy will have made major breakthroughs in key and core technologies, and the nation should be among the leading innovative countries, said the communiqué.

The tone-setting reflects the nation's determination in hammering high-tech into its long-term development path, Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Over the past five years, China's achievements in high-tech application have been obvious to the world, ranging from the lunar exploration project to the BeiDou satellite navigation system, and from the roll-off of high-speed maglev trains capable of speeds of 600 kilometers per hour to the world's leading 5G mobile telecom networks.

The nation has fully realized the necessity of building on its own fundamentals, Xiang noted, which is key to further high-quality economic development in the long run as well as a comprehensive boost to its domestic supply chain. 

This compares with the nation's vision to step into the ranks of innovative countries during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period.

Four out of 25 major economic and social development indicators set for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) period were related to innovation-driven development. 

In specifics, the 13th Five-Year plan aimed to raise the share of research and development spending as a percentage of GDP to 2.5 percent by 2020 from 2.1 percent in 2015. The number of patent filings per 10,000 people was to increase from 6.3 to 12, while the contribution of sci-tech advances to economic growth was expected to jump to 60 percent from 55.3 percent. 

The plan also set targets for internet penetration: fixed broadband penetration among Chinese households to hit 70 percent from 40 percent, and the penetration of mobile broadband among users to reach 85 percent from 57 percent.

The internet penetration targets have been overshot. As of the end of last year, the fixed broadband penetration rate among households had hit 91 percent, while the mobile broadband penetration rate had clocked in at 96 percent, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Wang Zhijun revealed at a press conference last week.

Global Times