Xi eyes future of NE China, stresses role of SOEs

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) is welcomed by villagers of Guangdong Village of Dongcheng Township in Yanbian Korea Autonomous Prefecture, northeast China's Jilin Province, July 16, 2015. Xi made an inspection tour in Jilin from July 16 to 18. [Photo/Xinhua]

At a Yanbian-based company under the pharmaceutical giant Jilin Aodong, Xi inspected products and their manufacturing lines, urging employees to closely track the latest progress in biopharmaceutical field and intensify research to develop more high-tech products.

"Drug safety weighs heavier than mountains. Guaranteeing drug safety concerns technology, management, morality as well as people's morale," Xi said, urging every pharmaceutical company to fully take on its social responsibilities to ensure that "every type of medicine and every tablet is safe and reliable."

While visiting the Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd, Xi praised a system in which every worker is required to register with their real names during key manufacturing processes so that defects can be backtracked.

Describing the high-speed trains as "a much sought-after commodity" in the country's economic and technological cooperation overseas, Xi urged the equipment manufacturing industry to seize the opportunities to invest more in research and development and build the country into a modern equipment manufacturing power on the world stage.

DEVELOPMENT PILOT ZONE

Xi stressed the importance of a pilot zone in northeast China's Jilin Province and demanded it be built into an example of opening up.

During his inspection tour, Xi visited Yanbian, home to China's largest Korean ethnic minority population and center of the Changchun-Jilin-Tumen Development Pilot Zone.

The pilot zone is of great significance for the opening of border areas and international cooperation in Northeast Asia, he said.

The area is also important for economic restructuring of northeast China, which used to be a major heavy industrial hub but has suffered economic setback for years, he added.

Xi urged the authorities of the pilot zone to carefully plan its development, deploy its resources intensively and efficiently, and build it into an example of opening up in the northeast.

Founded in 2009, the pilot zone aims to advance cross-border cooperation in the Tumen River Delta, which straddles the borders of China, Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

While visiting farmers, Xi stressed the importance of food safety to the country, promising to offer more support to farming areas so that the local economy will improve and farmers can increase their income through developing agriculture.

At the village community center, the president saw villagers rehearsing a traditional dance and stopped to appreciate the performance and take photos with villagers, extending them his best wishes.

He also instructed villages and local governments to preserve the traditions of the Korean ethnic group when planning the development of rural communities.