Harry Shum, executive vice-president of Microsoft. [Photo/VCG]

A1 The shift in China's economy toward an innovation-led development model will create huge demand for internet-connected technologies that help companies transform their operations and improve efficiency. These technologies enable new business models and new drivers of economic growth. The Internet of Things will play a vital role in the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industries.

A2 China has firmly established itself as a center for innovation and global internet leadership, especially in the mobile internet space. China's internet industry enjoys especially strong support from a policy perspective, as the government is actively promoting digital transformation across a wide range of industries while at the same time working to establish a market environment that rewards innovation and entrepreneurship. In terms of challenges, China must continue to invest in programs and implement policies that encourage innovation, such as the improvement of IP protection.

A3 Increasingly intelligent technologies will help accelerate the process of digital transformation that is already underway across a wide spectrum of industries. In the future, I believe every company will be, in many ways, an internet company. The integration of internet technologies and industry has the potential to provide China with a huge economic boost, especially in the manufacturing sector which has been one of the primary beneficiaries of advances in IoT technology and data intelligence.

A4 Startup companies bring innovative new ideas to the IT industry, so it's important that they have the necessary capital and technology resources to grow and reach their true potential. Despite the global economic slowdown, at Microsoft we are continuing to invest in empowering startups. In China, we have been running the Microsoft Accelerator program for four years, which provides qualifying top startups with four to six months of Acceleration and GTM resources. I expect this innovation and entrepreneurship enthusiasm will continue going forward in 2017.

A5 One area we have seen major breakthroughs in the past year is artificial intelligence. Advancements in voice and image recognition technologies has given rise to a new application platform that consist of digital assistants, chatbots, and conversation. With a new app model that's so powerful that it can unleash the full potential of mobile and cloud.