China builds up new pillar industries

In Wen's eyes, it is not easy to stay in the business and turn a profit in the tech-intensive emerging sector.

"We have built a research and development team of 300 persons within the company of 1,200 employees," said Wen. "It is important to constantly make technological innovations so our membranes can remain among the world's best."

Experienced engineers

Voice Touch, an app developed by Chinese engineers, recently became a competitor for Apple's Siri voice input system.

The new app, which allows Chinese people to speak instead of type when sending messages, calling friends and generating microblog posts, has been refused entry into the Apple Store several times since June. The latest explanation from Apple is that Voice Touch is "too similar with Siri", according to the app's developer, Anhui USTC iFlytek Co Ltd.

The refusal was interpreted as "Voice Touch beats Siri" by some Chinese fans who think Voice Touch is "smarter". Voice Touch has been downloaded on "jail-broken" iPhones over one million times, and Android downloads have hit four million, according to the developer.

Jiang Tao, vice-president of iFlytek, said Voice Touch is more accurate in voice recognition for two reasons. "For one thing, we have a better algorithm for computing the results. Chinese engineers are best in the world," he said.

"For another, iFlytek has been working in speech technology fields for more than a decade. We have collected large volumes of voice data in Chinese, including dialects," he said.

China, a country known for its large talent pool of engineers, is trying to keep pace with global developments in the new-generation IT sector that features cloud computing, mobile Internet and the Internet of Things, among others.

Observers maintain that Chinese engineers, diligent and smart, can play an important role in China's drive to build up new pillar industries.x But Jiang admitted that amidst global competition, Chinese companies lack innovative ideas. "We can beat foreign companies in technology, but at a higher level of competition, it is the idea," said Jiang.

"Mark Zuckerberg invented a new business model. China's Ma Yun invented a new model," said Jiang, comparing the founder of Facebook with the chairman of China's leading e-commerce company Alibaba. "We are eager to become a great company, but we have not yet invented a new model."

Government-led innovation

Besides the four pillar industries, China is building three pioneering industries - new energy, new-type materials and new-energy vehicles, which are expected to play a significant role in the country's development orientation.

According to China's plan, the added value of the aforementioned seven strategic emerging sectors will account for 8 percent of the country's GDP in 2015 and 15 percent in 2020.

Feng Xue, 34, a driver of the No. 90 bus in Beijing, is probably one of the most experienced electric vehicle (EV) drivers in China.