To ensure a medium-high level of economic growth for the next five years, China has moved to foster new growth engines as old ones lose steam.
China's exports dropped by 3.7 percent in November, the fifth straight month of decline, to 1.25 trillion yuan (195 million U.S. dollars), customs data showed Tuesday.
In recent years, old growth engines, including exports and investment, lost momentum partly due to weak demand at home and overseas. The country's quarterly GDP growth slowed to a six-year low of 6.9 percent in the third quarter of this year.
In the next five years, the country's annual growth rate should be no less than 6.5 percent to realize the goal of doubling the GDP and per capita income of 2010 by 2020.
To attain that goal, the government must cultivate new growth engines to bolster growth in the next five years.
EMERGING INDUSTRIES
As traditional industries including steel, coal and cement sectors are facing excessive capacity, China is moving to tap the potential of new industries with bright prospects.
A proposal for formulating the country's 13th five-year plan unveiled last month said that China will step up researches on core technology concerning the new generation of telecommunications, new energy, new material and aviation, and support the development of new industries, including energy conservation, biotechnology and information technology sectors.
In Changzhou, a city in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, there are more than 50 companies producing graphene, a new material that widely used in high-end equipment manufacturing, forming a national level production base for the material. Products made by Changzhou Tanyuan Technology Co. are used in smartphones. The company's sales have risen from 6 million yuan to more than 200 million yuan in only three years.
Qi Chengyuan, head of the high-tech division of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said China will turn new strategic industries into major driving forces for economic growth in the next five years.
