BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- China attaches great significance to research and application of robotics and hopes to see more international cooperation in this field, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao said on Monday.

"Countries should open up markets and share robotic technology for mutual benefit," Li said while addressing the opening ceremony of the World Robot Conference 2015, which will run until Wednesday in Beijing.

Although China lags behind in research and development of state-of-the-art robotics, the country has a huge market with enormous potential, said the vice president.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, 57,000 industrial robots were sold in China last year, a year-on-year increase of 55 percent, and a quarter of global sales.

But China still has a far lower ratio of robots to workers than other major economies -- just 36 per 10,000 manufacturing workers, versus 478 in the Republic of Korea, 315 in Japan, 292 in Germany and 164 in the United States.

"China, with a more open gesture, would like to welcome robot experts and entrepreneurs across the world to share knowledge and cooperate with us," said Li.