China plans to beef up investment and offer tax incentives to increase the annual output of its advanced materials industry to 2 trillion yuan (313 billion U.S. dollars) by 2015, said an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Wednesday.

The target figure is about 5 percent of China's 2010 gross domestic output, as the world's second largest economy looks to emerging industries like advanced materials to pursue more technology-driven, low-carbon and sustainable growth.

The government's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) for the advanced materials industry was approved at the MIIT last month and will be further specified, said Gao Yunhu, deputy head of the raw materials industry department of the MIIT, at an exposition in the northeastern city of Harbin.

The government aims for "breakthroughs by 2015 in a series of key generic technologies that are urgently needed and will lead future growth" and "a leading role for the advanced materials industry in the national economy by 2020," said Gao, who explained the plan at the exposition.

He noted that the industry is expected to grow at an average annual rate of more than 25 percent until 2015, and major enterprises' research and development investment will match 5 percent of their sales revenues.

During this five year period, China's own advanced materials industry will be able to supply 70 percent of products overall and 50 percent of key products needed by the country, said Gao.

The government will "exert efforts to push forward indigenous innovations and industrial upgrades, and promote the sustainable and rapid development of the advanced materials sector," Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said at the exposition on Tuesday.

The five-year plan for the industry will be formally announced soon, said Miao.