Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang has urged more efforts to develop China's auto parts industry and new energy vehicles, to increase the international competitiveness of the nation's auto sector.

Auto-part producers should step up self-development of core technologies and form their own brands to advance the sector, Zhang said during his visit to the China International Auto Parts Expo in Beijing Sunday.

"Quality should always come first," he said.

Improving the design and manufacturing level of the auto parts industry is "crucial" to the nation's auto sector, Zhang said.

"China's auto industry has overcome the severe impact of the financial crisis and achieved great progress," Zhang said.

However, he noted that the overall industry is not strong despite its large volumes of production and sales.

China overtook the United States to become the world's largest auto maker and auto market in 2009.

Output and sales both expanded by more than 40 percent to reach 13.79 million and 13.64 million units, respectively, last year, due to the government's tax reduction on car purchases and other stimulus measures.

In the first eight months of the year, auto sales to dealers totalled 11.58 million units, up 39.02 percent year on year, while output rose 39.27 percent from a year ago to 11.49 million units.

Automakers should work to promote new energy cars, to upgrade the auto industry, he said.

The Chinese government launched a subsidy program to promote green cars purchases in July. Under the scheme, buyers of cars designated "fuel-saving" receive a subsidy of 3,000 yuan (447 U.S. dollars) on each vehicle purchase.