1st LD Writethru: Xi stresses status of SOEs in national development

President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the country's development during his three-day inspection tour in northeast China's Jilin Province.

Noting that the SOEs are an important force to advance modernization and safeguard people's common interests, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, urged them to "unswervingly uphold the important position of SOEs in the national development."

Unremitting efforts should be made to ensure SOEs become stronger and more competitive, Xi said while inspecting a clutch production company under Northeast Industries Group Co. Ltd.

Xi stressed the important role of innovation, quality and management in SOE development, saying that reform in SOEs should be conducive to preserving or increasing the value of state-owned capital and help improve the competitiveness of the state-owned economy.

He urged vigorous promotion of the spirit of model workers, safeguarding the legitimate rights of workers and building harmonious labor relations.

At a pharmaceutical group 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 and development so as to present more products with high technological values.

"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. Endi