Chinese President Hu Jintao Wednesday called for the whole nation's efforts to accelerate the adjustment of economic development pattern to promote sound and fast economic and social development.

"The transformation of economic development mode brooks no delay based on a comprehensive judgement on international and domestic economic situation," Hu said at an opening ceremony of a seminar attended by provincial and ministerial-level officials.

The key for the transformation was to achieve it "at an accelerated speed" and with practical effects, he said.

Hu urged the country to enhance its capacity of independent innovation, deepen reform of the system for managing science and technology, and speed up its building of a "grand" pool of innovation-oriented talents in a bid to give scientific and technological support for the transformation.

To achieve the end, the country should speed up optimizing the economic structure and industrial upgrading, and the transformation of development mode of the agriculture sector, he said.

Hu also urged to improve energy, resources, ecological and environmental conservation and enhance China's capacity for sustainable development.

Other major tasks listed by Hu to accelerate economic adjustment include balancing economic and social development, promoting development of the cultural industry, and adjusting the development mode of foreign trade.

Last year was the most difficult for China's economic development since the new century, but the country's economy managed to achieve an overall recovering trend after the government carried out proper measures, he said.

China's gross domestic product grew 8.7 percent in 2009, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

However, Hu said the basis for the recovery was still unstable at present, and the international economic situation in the post-crisis era was more complicated.

"On the surface, the global financial crisis impacted on the speed of China's economic growth, but in essence it was the economic growth pattern that was worst hit," Hu said.

The adjustment of development mode would help to improve the country's economic development quality and efficiency, the economy's international competitiveness and anti-risk capability, and to expand the space for China's development, he said.

Hu admitted the adjustment would be a prolonged and arduous war, but said the work could be pushed forward by unwaveringly deepening reform in various sectors.

Hu said, the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2007, put forward the call for accelerating the transformation of the country's economic development mode.

The strategic tasks for the adjustment were to promote economic growth to shift from relying mainly on investment and exports to relying on a well-coordinated combination of consumption, investment and exports; from secondary industry serving as the major driving force to primary, secondary and tertiary industries jointly driving economic growth, and from relying heavily on increased consumption of material resources to relying mainly on advances in science and technology, improvement in the quality of the workforce and innovation in management, Hu said.

Senior Chinese leaders Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang were present at Wednesday's opening ceremony of the seminar at the CPC Central Committee's Party School.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2010)