Embracing innovation for long-term prosperity

In the Government Work Report he delivered at the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, Premier Li Keqiang has highlighted the importance of propelling higher-quality development of the real economy with innovation as a driving force. Which will require deeper integration of innovation-led technology with the real economy.

Especially, in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), innovation in technology will help boost the real economy, and promote scientific research in industries to achieve higher-quality growth.

In the past several years, increased technology innovation has created new possibilities for the real economy. New technologies are guiding the mobile communications industry and nuclear power plants, apart from emerging industries such as new energy, integrated circuits, 5G and artificial intelligence.

There are more than 200,000 high-tech enterprises in China, with international technology innovation centers coming up in many cities. Combining technology innovation with the real economy is bearing fruit, and the strategy will better serve the public.

The role technology plays in the overall development of society can never be overemphasized. However, in many key sectors, domestic technology standards are still far from meeting the demands of development in the new era.

For example, when it comes to semi-conductor chips, Chinese enterprises still rely heavily on foreign companies for want of advanced lithography machines. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period therefore the government should focus on sectors where the country lags behind its Western counterparts.

To achieve this goal, it is important to promote research in basic science.
Since higher-quality economic growth is the ultimate goal of technology innovation, the government must make greater efforts to strengthen the industrial chains, and modernize and upgrade it.

The blueprint for the next five years is ready and a new journey has started. It is time to allow innovation to play a major role so that China achieves long-term prosperity.