(Yicai) Oct. 27 -- China will promote the investment of state-owned capital in emerging industries as part of its social and economic development agenda over the next five years to enhance technological self-reliance, bolster national security, and foster high-quality growth, according to analysts and officials.

Recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan, which will run from next year through 2030, were adopted by the fourth plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Oct. 23, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The plan will present the opportunity to focus on national needs, industry trends, and the capabilities of central government-owned firms, Yuan Ye, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said at a press conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

Efforts will be made to increase investment in emerging industries, enhance work quality and efficiency, accelerate the development of emerging pillar industries that will lead future competition, and further cultivate and expand new quality productive forces, Yuan added.

Directing state-owned capital toward emerging industries can help to achieve breakthroughs in new technologies and new fields, thereby boosting core competitiveness, said Zhou Lisha, a researcher at the China Enterprise Reform and Development Society.

Other priorities will include national defense as well as food and energy security to ensure the strategic bottom line for the nation in these key fields, Zhou noted.

Central government-owned enterprises face multiple challenges, including external issues such as trade protectionism, geopolitical conflicts, and non-traditional security challenges, said Xu Lei, an assistant researcher at the SASAC Research Center.

Xu also pointed to weak internal driving forces for demand expansion, and said strategic emerging industries and future industries will be the main battlefields for economic growth, developing new productive forces, and building a modern industrial system.

Central government-owned enterprises need to further improve their marshalling of resources in emerging industries to achieve high-quality development, Xu said, adding that there is also a need to increase funding for these industries, and to pay more attention to pre-investment assessment and post-investment evaluation.

Central enterprises have invested CNY8.6 trillion (USD1.21 trillion) in strategic emerging industries since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, per data from SASAC, and they reported more than CNY11 trillion in operating revenue from these industries last year. Revenue from emerging industries also rose 8 percentage points as a share of their total in the past two years.

Editor: Tom Litting