More innovations expected on China: WEF chairman

TOKYO - Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), said here on Wednesday that he expected more innovations about China after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

"The key for success in the future will be the strength of innovation because all the economy take a lot of your focus will move so fast, so it is really important to have necessary agility and to be, if possible, always at the forefront of technological progress," the German professor said during an address at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Japan.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in Dalian, a city in Northeast China's Liaoning province, Sept 9, 2013. They will attend the Summer Davos Forum which will convene in the city from Sept 11 to 13. The theme of this year's event, an annual gathering also known as the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, is "Meeting the Innovation Imperative".[Photo by Zou Hong/chinadaily.com.cn]

He reviewed the long standing relationship of World Economic Forum and China, and referred to his discussion with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese government representative during this year's "Annual Meeting of the New Champions" hold in Dalian, China.

When asked by Xinhua about his opinion about the upcoming CPC's third plenary session, which is expected to put forward reform plans on economy, he said: "it was already a lot of question of freeing the entrepreneurial forces of China. In this respect, China has a similar issue like Japan to undertake necessary reforms to allow the economy in the future to prosper."

He cited the Silicon Valley as example, where he just spent one week in.

"I have to say we have to 'Silicon Valley-nize' the world. If the U.S. economy is restored today despite all its problems, it is mainly because those innovative companies," he said.

"So we have to create Silicon Valleys everywhere in the world, in Japan, in China, if we want to remake company," said the executive chairman of WEF.

He also said that countries were divided into industrialized and developing countries in the past, but the standard of classification will change in the future, and by then there would only be high innovation countries and low innovation countries by this standard.

Schwab was awarded by the Japanese government on Sunday of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, First Class, for his contributions to promoting ties with Japan and enhancing the international community.