Innovation put at core of China's five-year plan

BEIJING - Innovation will be put at core position for China's development in the five years from 2016, according to a communique released on Thursday following a four-day meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Leaders of the CPC convened in Beijing on Monday for the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, to discuss an economic blueprint that will set the direction for the world's second-largest economy over the next five years.

Sectors including science, technology and culture need to be made more innovative, said the communique.

The government plans to encourage a system that nurtures innovation and sees better allocation of resources including labor, capital, land, technology and management.

China will continue to encourage mass entrepreneurship in the hope that it will lead to new technology, the communique said.

In response to the "new normal" of the plateauing economy, the central government has announced a range of measures for emerging businesses, including financial support, supporting infrastructure and administrative assistance.

From January to September, around 3.16 million new companies were established in China, up 19.3 percent from a year ago, according to the latest data from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

In this period, the high-tech sector reported 10.4-percent growth in value-added output, 4.2 percentage points higher than the figure for the whole industrial sector.