CRI听力:President Xi considers innovation pivotal for China's development

Among the more common terms which make up comments and speeches by Xi Jinping is "innovation."

Considered one of the keys to China's continued development, CRI's Zhou Fang has more on the Chinese President's thoughts on "innovation" in Part-5 of our 7-part series this Spring Festival holiday we're calling "Xi Jinping: Making Lives Better."

"Do you all feel happy today?"

"Yes, we do!"

That was the staff at Gree Electric Appliances cheering when President Xi Jinping praised them for their spirit and skills of innovation.

The Chinese President was on an inspection tour of Gree in Guangdong Province in October 2018. The firm has grown from an air-conditioner manufacturer into a group that produces home appliances, industrial equipment – even smartphones. Their products now sell to over 160 countries and regions.

During the inspection, Xi Jinping encouraged the workers to be ambitious and courageous in beefing up their ability to be independent innovators.

"Developing the real economy is critical for our transformation from being a big country into a strong country. Under no circumstances shall we ignore the real economy. The manufacturing industry is a key component of the real economy, and it has innovation at its core. To master key and core technologies, we must rely on ourselves and strive through independent innovations. I hope all enterprises can make efforts in this direction," Xi said.

And in June of last year, President Xi Jinping paid a visit to a computer production facility that belongs to Inspur Group, which is headquartered in Jinan of Shandong Province.

Inspur Group is a major Chinese manufacturer of server hardware and a leading supplier of cloud computing and big data services.

President Xi stressed that enterprises should tap into the country's institutional advantages to promote innovation.

"We are now closer than ever to fulfilling the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. One must sustain one's efforts when a task is nearing completion. We will be confronted with uNPRecedented challenges and difficulties at this critical moment, which requires us to have a strong sense of responsibility and to be united as one, working hard day and night in a down-to-earth manner. We have to rely on ourselves to obtain the key technologies. We should bring into play the full advantages of our system and pool all the resources to promote innovation," Xi noted.

As part of his New Year inspection tour, the Chinese President visited the Binhai-Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park in Tianjin, where he learned about some of the latest achievements in the advanced technology sector.

Qi Juntong, the general manager of Efy Technology, demonstrated the company's automatic control system for drone clusters.

He said some of the current policies were designed to help unleash the vitality of the researchers and research institutions, which will help to make more of their dreams come true.

Upon hearing this, President Xi Jinping said that more policies will be rolled out which will create an even better environment for innovation.

"High-quality development hinges on innovation. Further development for our country still relies on independent innovation. We will develop more policies so that people with aspirations can devote themselves whole-heartedly with confidence and passion to the cause of innovation," Xi emphasized.

A statement issued after the annual Central Economic Work Conference in December said that China's small and medium-sized enterprises will see greater support in innovation, and that the protection and utilization of intellectual property rights will be enhanced.

And in remarks addressed to senior provincial and ministerial officials in January, President Xi Jinping called for greater efforts to strengthen the mechanisms that support independent innovation, accelerate the establishment of national laboratories, restructure national key laboratory system, and set up major bases and platforms for innovation.