BEIJING, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Technological improvement will contribute more to China's economic growth this year, a senior official said Saturday.

Wang Zhigang, vice minister of Science and Technology, estimated the contribution would rise to 57.5 percent in 2017, up from 56.2 percent last year, at a forum.

Wang cited breakthroughs in transformation of scientific achievements including high-speed rail, UHV power transmission, hybrid rice, satellite navigation, and electric cars. "We can grow rice in seawater with lower density...and Huawei's polar coding has become part of international 5G standards."

China has become the world's second largest investor in R&D, with 1.57 trillion yuan (nearly 240 billion U.S. dollars) poured in the area last year, accounting for more than 20 percent of the world's total. Its R&D-to-GDP ratio was 2.11 percent, generally at the same level with that of European countries.

Wang said more efforts will be made in innovation, including employing technologies such as big data to upgrade traditional industries, increasing tax breaks to support tech firms, and stepping up protection of intellectual property rights.