China should focus on self-innovation rather than over-reliance on technology imports to achieve the industrial modernization, according to a blue paper issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The report was made upon CASS's survey on the country's 15 key industries. The result showed inadequate investment in self-innovation in China, which has held back the country from faster industrialization.

Investment in research and development in some industries was about 10 percent of the level in the developed nations, according to the report.

The report urged industries to focus on self-innovation as the main and sustainable drive for economic development in the course of importing foreign technologies.

The report forecast that the country will realize preliminary industrial modernization at around 2040.

China's shipbuilding industry is ranked as the most industrialized field, followed by the steel sector and the petroleum sector. They are up already half-way to the world's most advanced level, according to the report. And the cement sector, the coal mining sector and the machine tool sector are listed as the bottom three.