China pledges to transform, upgrade real economy through innovation

China will make greater efforts this year to implement innovation-driven development strategy, upgrade the structure of the real economy, and improve its performance and competitiveness, the government work report said Sunday.

"The real economy has always been the foundation of China's development; the task we now face is to speed up its transformation and upgrading," said the report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang at the opening meeting of the top legislature's annual session.

To this end, the report noted, China will strengthen its capability for making technological innovations, by improving mechanisms for providing continued long-term support for fundamental research and original research, building major national infrastructure projects for science and technology and setting up technological innovation hubs, and establishing platforms for sharing R&D resources, among other measures.

China will also accelerate the development of emerging industries.

"We will accelerate R&D on and commercialization of new materials, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, bio-pharmacy, 5G mobile communications, and other technologies, and develop industrial clusters in these fields," the report read.

The government will continue to support and guide the development of the sharing economy, the report said, adding regulatory rules will be formulated for emerging industries with the principle of "encouraging innovation and conducting regulation in a tolerant and prudent way."

In addition, a raft of measures will be introduced to ensure faster and more cost-effective information networks, including canceling mobile rates for domestic roaming and long-distance calls, according to the report.