Premier Li cheers start-ups in China's Silicon Valley

Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday visited Zhongguancun, a technology hub in northwestern Beijing known as China's Silicon Valley, to cheer start-ups in a fresh demonstration of support for entrepreneurship and innovation.

In a visit to 3W Coffee, a cafe frequented by young IT engineers and entrepreneurs for seminars and brainstorming salons, Li listened to makers' ideas and stories, and urged effort to create conditions to allow the flowering of such innovation.

"As China is upgrading its growth mode, your stories of striving for success will become inspiration for an innovation-driven and knowledge-based economy," Li said.

The first signs of a big official push behind makerspaces came in the government work report in March. The annual report mentioned makers for the first time and identified mass entrepreneurship and innovation as a new engine for economic growth.

Although China's broader economy is slowing, young entrepreneurs are driving a wave of startups that has become an economic bright spot.

According to official data, the number of newly registered firms in China in Q1 rose by nearly 40 percent from Q1 of 2014.

Li said the tide of start-ups offered rare opportunities for the masses, and the government should provide more favorable policies to encourage them. Endi