CRI听力:China to seek breakthroughs in core technologies: official

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says the country will further enhance its cooperation with other countries in relation to cutting-edge technologies, such as integrated circuits.

Chen Yin, Chief Engineer at the ministry, says that China's integrated circuit industry has been booming in recent years.

His comments at a press conference come days after the United States announced a ban on exports to Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE.

"The market for China's information technology products has great potential. China will stick to innovation-driven development, remain open for cooperation, seek major breakthroughs concerning core technology and deepen cooperation with relevant industries abroad. We have the confidence to make shared progress that will benefit people all around the world," says Chen.

The chief engineer adds that China is now raising funds to establish a foundation that will boost the development of the country's integrated circuit industry.

He says that in the meantime, China is working on a substantial reduction in tariffs for imported cars, as part of its efforts to further open up the country's domestic markets.

"We will scrap caps on foreign shares of new energy vehicle producers in 2018 and in makers of commercial and passenger vehicles in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Foreign investors will also be allowed to set up more than two joint ventures in China," says Chen.

Figures released at the press briefing show that China's value-added industrial output expanded by 6.8% year-on-year in the first quarter.

Manufacturing output grew by 7% in the first three months, meaning that the slowdown of profit growth since March last year has been reversed.

Production in the high-tech manufacturing industries rose by 11.9% on a yearly basis.

There are now 1.05 billion 4G users in China, accounting for 72.2% of mobile phone users.

Revenues for the telecommunications industry in China rose by 5.1% year-on-year.

According to the Government Work Report released in March, the cost of mobile Internet services will be cut by at least 30% this year. 

Measures are also being taken to abolish domestic data roaming fees.