China: IT tycoons aim bigger role in economy

China's IT tycoons said at a forum on Sunday China can adopt a better economic structure as the IT boom deepens its integration with traditional industries.
Tencent Chairman Pony Ma said the Internet could resolve "unreasonable factors" in industries such as the telecommunication and finance.
He said the Internet would transform many industries to focus on individual demands.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the favorable wind of the "Internet Plus" is set to push the Chinese economy to a higher level.
The "Internet Plus" action plan was unveiled in the government work report that Li delivered to national lawmakers on March 5.
The plan aims to integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking, and to help Internet companies increase international presence.
The booming IT industry has been playing a bigger role in Chinese economy.
According to a report released at the IT leaders forum, the market volume of the mobile Internet in China reached 200 billion yuan (32 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014.
Of the world's 10 biggest Internet companies, four are Chinese companies, the report said.
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said China's IT industry should enter a new phase that it could involve every person and every industry.
"For instance, Didi came as a popular combination of the Internet and the taxi industry. Such things represent future trends," Yang said. Didi is China's Uber-like app.
China's IT industry was integrating with every other industry as it entered a new era of innovation, said Li Ying, a senior executive of e-China Alliances.
Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma told the forum members that the IT companies should use the technologies and ideas of the Internet to integrate with traditional industries.
He said the IT companies that could not integrate with traditional industries would not develop well in the future.
Traditional industries and companies could not survive if they do not use technologies and ideas of the Internet, he added.