China plans more steps to stimulate further opening-up, tech innovation

Steps to support strategic industries, the creation of several advanced manufacturing clusters with international competitiveness and measures to support the growth of digital economy will be the key objectives in China's ongoing efforts to bolster high-quality development, according to a statement issued after the annual Central Economic Work Conference.

Analysts said China is now transforming from the phase of rapid development to a new stage of high-quality development and shifting its focus to nurturing technological innovation and further opening up its economy.

More efforts should be made to increase investment in equipment upgrading and technical reform, reinforce the optimization and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry, with a focus on promoting the modernization level of the industrial chain, the statement said.

The conference also underscored vigorous efforts in accelerating transformation of scientific and technological achievements, enhancing enterprises' technological innovation capacities, and improving the mechanism of discovering, cultivating and motivating technology talent.

Wang Yuanhong, an economist at the State Information Center, a government think tank, said it is a long-term key task to boost high-quality development. "It is more necessary to rely on such a development approach to transform the growth pattern, optimize the economic structure and address deep-seated structural problems in economic growth, as the country is facing downward economic pressure," Wang said.

Wang said the high-quality development path is beneficial for continuously improving the share of scientific and technological innovation in overall economic growth.

"After years of high-speed development, China is now following a medium to high growth track, paying more attention to the quality and benefits of development," said Tang Jianwei, chief researcher at the Bank of Communications' Financial Research Center. "During this process, there is no need to focus on headlong pursuit of quantity growth, which may bring uncertainties such as an increase in leverage and high risks."

Looking forward, China should continue to follow the new development approach and the strategy of innovation-driven development, Tang said.

"As China's old growth models gradually slow down, we should gradually reduce reliance on old growth drivers like investment, exports and consumption. Instead, we need to develop high-tech and emerging sectors, such as digital economy and advanced manufacturing, to inject fresh impetus into economic development," Tang said.

China's economy has maintained overall stability. The country's GDP expanded 6.2 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.