BUILDING UP TECH STRENGTH

China will raise its capacity for pursuing scientific and technological innovation, leveraging market forces to encourage enterprises to innovate, according to the report.

To that end, the country will offer preferential tax policies to encourage research and development (R&D), especially for manufacturing enterprises, the report said.

The draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for national economic and social development and the long-range objectives through the year 2035 also identified self-reliance in science and technology as a strategic underpinning for national development.

Guo Wei, deputy director of the Research Office of the State Council, said that the building of tech strength is a sustained process that requires efforts from all parties, and market-oriented mechanisms are necessary to incentivize more R&D spending by firms.

Liu Wei, a national political advisor and chairman of Guangzhou-based artificial intelligence (AI) provider PCITECH, said that, while the country already enjoys a competitive edge globally in fields such as AI-powered transport and medical services, the application scenarios for the technology are still limited.

He proposed that the government and state-owned enterprises work with private companies to apply AI technology in areas like smart cities and urban rail transit.

China's advancement in technology will not only be crucial for its own growth, but offers benefits to the wider world, breaking the technology monopoly by many developed countries and lowering the prices of key technologies, said Li Daokui, an economist with Tsinghua University and a national political advisor.