Xi calls for innovation push in Dalian

Economic development must rely on talent and embrace technology

President Xi Jinping called for the nation's high-tech industries to embrace companies with advanced technologies and business management skills in a visit to Dalian, Liaoning province, on Thursday.

During a tour through the coastal city's high-tech industrial zone, Xi was given a demonstration of high-tech products, including a battery-powered vehicle and a robot that crawls.

He said the high-tech industrial zone should refuse companies who are incapable of producing advanced technologies.

Not all "vegetables" - in reference to companies - belong in the "basket" of high-tech industrial zones, Xi said.

The Dalian High-Tech Industrial Zone, covering an area of 153 square kilometers, was established in 1991 and houses about 4,700 companies engaged in software and information services development.

At one stop at an IT solutions and services company, Xi encouraged the workers to help advance Chinese society through technological innovation.

The nation's traditional methods of development are no longer sustainable and today's economic development must rely more on talent, Xi said.

At another stop, the president demonstrated a company's teleconferencing technology aimed to help hospitals across the country easily exchange information and treatment advice. Using a high-tech TV screen, Xi spoke with Xu Shuqiang, president of China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, which is linked with many hospitals nationwide.

"It's like adding wings to tigers to improve medical services through information technology. The system should be used effectively to provide better services to the people," Xi said.

He also visited the Dalian Commodity Exchange and encouraged the bourse's staff to explore methods to develop an exchange for futures trading.

Dalian Commodity Exchange, founded in 1993, is one of four futures exchanges in China and the only futures exchange in Northeast China, according to its website.

During his visit to a maker of hydrogenation reactors on Wednesday evening, Xi said that workers and technicians are the treasures of an enterprise. He called on managers to make greater efforts to retain talented employees. He said pay scales should climb in step with a company's increasing output.

Xi also visited Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd as rain fell on Wednesday evening, taking photos with the company's workers. Realizing that none of the workers had umbrellas, Xi handed his umbrella to an official and stood in the rain to take photos with the workers, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xinhua contributed tothis story.