BEIJING - China will nurture and develop seven new strategic industries with favorable policies in the next five years, according to an official document released Wednesday.

The document, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's Proposal for Formulating the 12th Five-Year Program for China's Economic and Social Development (2011-15), was adopted at the Fifth Plenum of the 17th CPC Central Committee.

The industries were new-generation information technology, energy-saving and environment protection, new energy, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and new-energy cars, said the document.

China would boost policy support and planning guidance to promote research and development in key technologies and develop the seven strategic sectors into pillar industries to improve industry core competitiveness and economic efficiency, it said.

The government would put forward fiscal, tax and financial policies to support major state-level science and technology projects and domestic indigenous innovation to promote the development of high-tech industries, it added.

The proposal highlighted huge development in the services sector as key to industry upgrading. The government would improve fair, disciplined and transparent market access standards, and adjust tax and pricing systems for land, water and electricity to drive growth in the services sector, it said.

The document said the government would support technology innovation and reasonably guide mergers and acquisitions to increase manufacturing industry concentration.

It would speed up new energy development and promote clean and efficient use of traditional energy, develop hydroelectric and nuclear power, and increase strategic oil reserves, it said.

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It proposed China scientifically plan marine economic development concerning sectors like oil and gas, transport and fishing, reasonably develop and use marine resources and protect the marine environment.

China should speed up education reform and give full play to human resources to make the economy more driven by science and technology innovation, it said.

The government would unveil tax and fiscal policies to support business innovation and industrialization of scientific research and increase government spending on basic research, it stated.

The government would invest more in improving education quality and reasonably allocate education resources to narrow the gap between rural and urban areas, the document added.