BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- China is driving continuous breakthroughs in frontier technologies, fostering the development of future industries as part of efforts to cultivate new growth engines.
Industries of the future are characterized by foresight, strategic importance and disruptive potential, as exemplified by fields such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion power, brain-computer interfaces, embodied artificial intelligence (AI) and 6G mobile communications.
These six sectors were explicitly highlighted in the Communist Party of China Central Committee's recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) released in October last year.
The document calls for exploring diverse technology roadmaps, identifying typical application scenarios, developing feasible business models, and formulating appropriate market regulation rules for these industries, with the goal of nurturing them into new drivers of economic growth.
The future industries highlighted in the recommendations represent transformative technological breakthroughs, with vast potential to boost productivity and generate powerful spillover effects across the broader industrial landscape, according to Xin Yongfei, an expert at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
The focus is already yielding measurable economic returns. According to the China Academy of Industrial Internet, the output of these industries reached approximately 11.7 trillion yuan (about 1.68 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2024, which is projected to expand to 13.4 trillion yuan in 2025 and 15.5 trillion yuan in 2026, representing an annual growth rate of 15 percent.
Building on this momentum, the country is doubling down on support by fostering synergy between technological and industrial innovation, empowering enterprises to take the lead in innovation, and strengthening policy services tailored to these sectors.
In January, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that over the next five years, efforts will be made to carry out a slew of forward-looking sci-tech projects of strategic significance in future industries, and support local authorities in developing these sectors according to local conditions.
Echoing national directives, local governments are tailoring detailed plans to their unique resources. In this year's government work reports, Jiangsu has pledged to deepen its three-year action plan for cultivating future industries, stressing the need to selectively nurture future industries based on local resource endowments, industrial foundations and scientific research conditions. Zhejiang has set a target to establish 10 new pilot zones for future industries, while Sichuan is also making forward-looking arrangements for future industries.
By integrating their vast market advantages, full-industry-chain strengths and rapidly evolving technological capabilities, local governments are poised to cultivate globally competitive industrial clusters, said Ding Zhuang, a research fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China.
Many future industries are taking shape, driven by successive breakthroughs from the private sector. China is now fostering a collaborative innovation ecosystem centered on enterprises, channeling diverse resources to where they can be put to best use.
A primary example is the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Center. Established in September 2023 as the country's first AI large model incubation platform, it has attracted over 200 companies.
The center offers integrated support spanning computing power, datasets, financing, talent and application scenarios, helping startups overcome hurdles such as high costs, limited data and fundraising difficulties. Within the building, companies along the supply chain operate just floors apart, and neighbors often grow into close partners.
The Shanghai center is not alone, as similar hubs are emerging nationwide.
The national information technology innovation park in Beijing E-Town now houses over 1,000 enterprises, extending its industrial footprint into quantum information, 6G communication, smart hardware and other cutting-edge fields. In Shenzhen, the Liuxian corridor, also known as "Robot Valley," boasts a complete supply chain, including self-maintaining humanoid robots, sensors and agile workshops that rapidly produce customized components.
The entrepreneurial landscape is flourishing. Data from the State Administration for Market Regulation show that in the first 11 months of 2025, some 283,000 new firms in future industries were registered, a year-on-year increase of 35.8 percent. Notably, the number of newly registered generative AI companies surged more than 29-fold, while new humanoid robotics firms increased by 48.9 percent.
Despite the rapid growth, future industries are marked by long incubation periods and considerable risks, requiring both entrepreneurial risk-taking and sustained government support.
To meet these needs, China will continue to refine fiscal and tax policies, bolster tech-focused financial services, and ensure that talent is cultivated, attracted and fully utilized, while also pursuing effective and well-conceived regulation to guard against risks in future industries.
"These continued efforts in investment and institutional support are designed to accelerate the translation of sci-tech breakthroughs into industrial applications, helping fledgling future industries grow from seedlings into towering trees," said Deng Zhou, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ■
