Emerging industries to the fore

A worker assembles a robotic arm at a factory in Foshan, Guangdong province. Provided to China Daily

High-tech production, manufacturing and Internet-related sectors to see more investment

Emerging industries will continue to play an important role in driving China's economy.

The National Development and Reform Commission underlined the policy on Thursday when it announced plans to promote new projects involving emerging industries, such as Internet-related sectors, and high-tech manufacturing and production.

By backing these industries, the NDRC hopes private enterprises will invest in emerging industries, which in turn will help stimulate economic growth.

Last year, the NDRC launched seven projects, which included oil and gas pipelines, ecological protection, clean energy, water conservation, transportation, pension services and mining.

In June, urban rail development and modern logistics were added to the list of industries being promoted by the NDRC.

By the end of last month, major projects launched by the government had attracted investment of more than 3.3 trillion yuan ($531 billion), according to Zhao Chenxin, deputy director-general of the department of policy studies at the NDRC.

Much of that investment came from private companies. "Construction involving 228 projects has already started," Zhao said.

Qi Chengyuan, director-general of the high-tech department of the NDRC, said emerging industries will become increasingly important in boosting economic growth in the country. "In promoting emerging industries, the government's emphasis should be on creating a fair market environment," Qi said.

In the past five months, profit growth from emerging industries with an annual income of more than 5 million yuan was 20 percent. This was much higher than the average national level.

In terms of competitive manufacturing, the country will step up efforts in promoting industrial robots, renewable energy vehicles, high-end ocean engineering equipment and modern agricultural machinery as well as medical equipment.

Zhang Hanya, president of the Investment Association of China, said these new packages will help stimulate the economy in the second half of the year.