Biotechnology, clean energy and next generation IT will create jobs

The nation’s next wave of growth will be fueled by new industries such as biotechnology, clean energy and advanced manufacturing, according to a government think thank.

The transformation is expected to generate massive job opportunities by upgrading the skills of workers across the country’s business sectors.

“Strategic emerging industries will help the world’s second largest economy bottom out from the economic downturn cycle,” said Zhao Changwen, director of the Department of Industrial Economy at the Development Research Center. The department is a government think tank affiliated to the nation’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission.

Gross domestic product growth reached 6.9 percent in the first half of this year after decades of double-digit expansion.

In a move to plan for the future, the government has rolled out preferential policies to support the development of “strategic emerging industries” since 2009.

Key categories include biotechnology, advanced and high-end manufacturing, clean energy, information technology, digital industries, next generation IT and new energy projects, such as e-vehicles.

These sectors have been earmarked as strategic industries, the NDRC revealed earlier this year.

Boosting employment was a key component in the indus-

Strategic emerging industries will help the world’s second largest economy bottom out ...” Zhao Changwen, director of the Department of Industrial Economy at NDRC Development Research Center expected to be created by strategic emerging industries each year, by the end of 2020

trial shift, it said.

By the end of 2020, one million jobs are expected to be created by strategic emerging industries each year, according to the nation’s 13th FiveYear Plan (2016-20).

“It is hard to make a precise calculation of how many jobs will be created,” Zhao said. “The government has been expanding the catalogue (of new industries).

“But creating one million jobs a year is not a difficult target to achieve,” he added. “We might achieve more than that.”

Zhao stressed that employees would be retrained and switched from traditional businesses to new advanced sectors, as the country weans itself off heavy industries.

New emerging industries, such as next generation IT and information technology sectors, are already popping up,