While charting ambitious goals of economic and social developments for the 1.3 billion people in the next five years and by 2020, Hu Jintao stressed the need to enhance Chinese culture as the country's "soft power" in his keynote speech to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"Culture has become a more and more important source of national cohesion and creativity and a factor of growing significance in the competition in overall national strength," Hu said on behalf of the 16th CPC Central Committee.

We must "enhance culture as part of the soft power of our country to better guarantee the people's basic cultural rights and interests," he said.

Some highlights of his proposed methods in this regard include:

-- to step up the development of the press, publishing, radio, film, television, literature and art, give correct guidance to the public and foster healthy social trends;

-- to strengthen efforts to develop and manage Internet culture and foster a good cyber environment;

-- to continue to develop nonprofit cultural programs as the main approach to ensuring the basic cultural rights and interests of the people, increase spending on such programs, and build more cultural facilities in urban communities and rural areas;

-- to vigorously develop the cultural industry, launch major projects to lead the industry as a whole, speed up the development of cultural industry bases and clusters of cultural industries with regional features, nurture key enterprises and strategic investors, create a thriving cultural market and enhance the industry's international competitiveness;

-- to establish a national system of honors for outstanding cultural workers.

Hu said that Chinese culture has been an unfailing driving force for the Chinese nation to keep its unity and make progress from generation to generation.

"The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will definitely be accompanied by the thriving of Chinese culture," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2007)