China must boost productivity: WEF expert

"This is critical, as I believe that human talent, not financial capital, will be the great driver of growth in the 21st century," he said.

In addition, Internet Plus builds on an area where China is already an innovator, not just in terms of companies, but also in terms of business models, as many Chinese Internet companies have had to find ways of finding commercial success without the strong advertising markets that companies in the West have been able to build on, according to Howell.

He said the WEF shares China's assessment that the Internet and related technologies－while being a driving force behind the evolution and growth in the global economy during past decades－remain "underused" and would benefit from further public-sector investment.

The Chinese government has given high priority to mass innovation and entrepreneurship to spur on the vitality of the economy. As a staunch preacher of innovation, the founder and executive chairman of WEF, Klaus Schwab, recently remarked that countries will soon no longer be described as "emerging" or "advanced", but rather "innovation-rich" or "innovation-poor".

"I fully agree with him that the winners will be those countries that have been successful in implementing long-term structural reforms to enable businesses to flourish and talent to be developed in ways that allow wealth to be shared across all the population," he said.

In Howell's eyes, China's leaders have signaled their clear intent to pursue such policies and are showing promise in implementing them despite near-term economic challenges. He stressed that it is important to frame future competitiveness in terms of "the entire enabling environment", rather than one set of factors.

Technology also plays a pivotal role in efforts to address climate change, and this year the WEF has specially devoted one of the six theme tracks to the "green" or environmental topic.

Last year China and the United States reached a landmark agreement to cap emissions by 2030. Howell said this was a "breakthrough" in terms of breathing fresh life into the process leading up to the UN climate talks in December.

"And China's emergence as an increasingly prominent voice in the debate offers us great encouragement that a global commitment can be reached," he said.