New industrial wave will boost economy

and creating job opportunities through internet integration.

Last year, about 5.85 million people were working on platforms related to the “shared economy”.

This was up by 850,000 compared to 2015, a report by China e-Business Research Center showed earlier this year.

Still, emerging industries have yet to solve problems such as job losses amid economic restructuring. Zhao, though, is confident that will eventually change as emerging industries expand in the next a few years.

By 2020, the added value output of strategic emerging industries is expected to account for 15 percent of the nation’s total GDP, up from 8 percent last year, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan.

During the same period, China wants five new pillar industries to each generate output of 10 trillion yuan ($1.47 trillion). This would include information technology, biotechnology, and green and low-carbon industries.

Official data showed profits made from key emerging industries jumped by 13.3 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2017. This was 1.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

“While progress has been made, supervision and supportive measures need to be improved,” said Fei Zhirong, deputy secretary general of the NDRC.

Increased investment and protection of intellectual property rights are needed to help expand the emerging industries sector, Fei said. The government also needed to address imbalances in regional development.

“Many high-tech emerging industries prefer to invest and build factories in the eastern part of China,” Fei said. “It might become a concern leading to imbalanced growth.”