China vowed more efforts to promote reform and encourage innovation in its northeast to bolster the region's economy during the 13th Five-year Plan period (2016-20), according to a plan issued on December 19 by China's top economic planner.

The northeast should accelerate the reform of traditional industries and development of emerging industries and service sector to improve the region's economic structure, according to the plan posted on the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) website.

The country plans to increase the region's investment in research and trial development to 2.1 percent of local GDP and make the service sector contribute 47.4 percent of GDP by 2020.

The northeast, an old industrial base, has faced more difficulties than the rest of China in the country's economic slowdown over the last two years. The region relies largely on heavy and chemical industries, energy resources, raw materials and a large number of state-owned enterprises.

According to the NDRC data, the region's economy grew 2.2 percent in the first half of 2016, much lower than the 7.6 percent, 7.8 percent and 8 percent for the eastern, central and western regions of the country, respectively.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2016)