President Xi visits flood-affected villagers in Heilongjiang

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the northeastern province of Heilongjiang to firmly grasp its strategic position in the country’s overall development and strive to open new ground for its high-quality development.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during his inspection in the province from Wednesday to Friday.
Building upon the region’s existing industrial foundation, it must diligently advance the high-quality development of advanced manufacturing, expedite the upgrading of traditional industries and harness the augmentative power of technological innovation, which involves a continuous optimization of the economic and industrial structure, Xi said.
He urged efforts to improve the core competitiveness of state-owned enterprises, lead the healthy development of the private economy, and create industrial clusters to build up the strength and quality of the real economy.
It needs to give greater prominence to the development of agricultural technology, and at the same time promote technology-driven agriculture, environmentally-friendly agriculture, quality agriculture, and branded agriculture, he said.
Noting that to develop the ice-snow industry is a new growth point, Xi stressed efforts to guard the forests, rivers, lakes, wetlands, ice and snow and other landscapes, improve the infrastructure conditions in border areas, and actively develop border tourism.
“We should better coordinate trade, investment, transportation, and platform construction, boldly explore and pioneer in the fields such as market access, factor mobility, and institutional openness, and create a comprehensive new pattern of opening-up to the outside world,” Xi said.  –The Daily Mail-GGTN news exchange item