Chinese premier highlights technological breakthroughs, industrial progress

China has achieved a number of major industrial innovation achievements as well as technological breakthroughs, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Tuesday as he delivered a government work report at the second session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The major achievements include the launch of large homegrown passenger jets C919 and the large cruise ships, besides the country's new energy vehicles taking up over 60 percent of the global share.

The report also mentioned a slew of key technological breakthroughs. The research and development on high-end equipment, such as aircraft engines, gas turbines and fourth-generation nuclear power units, have made significant progress, while China's technology contract turnover increased by 28.6 percent last year, according to the report.

The report said that China's traditional industries are accelerating their transformation and upgrade alongside the boom of emerging industries, and the future layout of the industries has been planned in an orderly manner. In addition, the advanced manufacturing industry has been deeply integrated with the modern services industries.

Moreover, the construction of national laboratories is underway. The innovation from new frontiers, such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology, continues to emerge, and China will further encourage the enterprises to invest in technological research and development with stronger tax deduction policies, pushing the high quality development of the key industries.

The report said that with the rapid development of the digital economy, the 5G user penetration rate has surpassed 50 percent.