China will channel more energy into mass entrepreneurship and innovation to push forward high-quality development, said Premier Li Keqiang.

Li made the remarks in a written instruction to the opening ceremony of the national mass entrepreneurship and innovation week, held on September 9 in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

China's emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation has played a positive role in unleashing innovation potential, stimulating market vitality, and creating jobs in recent years, Li said, adding more efforts are required to better implement the country's innovation-driven development strategy and help realize quality development.

He said the governments will work to further streamline administration and improve services, step up protection of intellectual property rights, and build a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized environment for entrepreneurs and innovators.

The Premier also highlights Internet technology in improving public services and inspiring creativity, and expects it to play a greater role in fostering new growth drivers and improving national creative power and economic competitiveness.

Vice Premier Han Zheng attended the opening ceremony. Han said that as the Chinese economy moves from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, China should step up implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development and accelerate the upgrading of growth momentum to promote stable and sound economic development.

He stressed improving the development environment and moving forward with a negative list for market access, adding China will expand fiscal and tax support, improve financial services and build up a service and management system for intellectual property rights.

He said that China would make more effort to encourage and support entrepreneurship and innovation, speed up the construction of national innovation centers and facilitate technology transfer and application of sci-tech achievements of colleges and universities.

The opening ceremony assembled about 400 people, including officials and entrepreneurs.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2018)