BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- China's major provincial economic powerhouses are expected to take the lead in fostering new quality productive forces in line with their local conditions to better serve as a "ballast stone" in stabilizing the country's economic growth, experts said during the latest episode of China Economic Roundtable, an all-media talk show hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

With sizable economic scales, these major provincial economic powerhouses are expected to shoulder greater responsibilities in China's overall development, according to Liu Zhicheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission. He added that they should leverage their leading role in scientific and technological innovation to take the lead in developing new quality productive forces.

As the driving forces of China's economy, 10 provincial-level regions -- Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Henan, Hubei, Fujian, Shanghai and Hunan -- contribute over 60 percent of the country's GDP.

Liu called on these regions to boost their economic competitiveness by integrating technological and industrial innovation to address external uncertainties.

Liu Wenqiang, Party secretary of the China Center for Information Industry Development, urged these regions -- especially industrial powerhouses -- to leverage their unique advantages and industrial foundations to cultivate new quality productive forces.

Industrial and technological innovation is the core engine for fostering new quality productive forces, Liu noted, calling for more efforts to advance industrial upgrading and the development of quality standards and application scenarios. ■