President calls for measures supporting higher-level independent innovation

President Xi Jinping underlined the need to step up institutional reforms of the nation's scientific and technological sector on Wednesday, and also called for developing a unified national market system for electrical power.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the statement while presiding over a meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform on Wednesday. He is also the director of the committee.

The meeting adopted a series of key documents, including a three-year plan (2021-23) for reforms of the science and technology management system, and proposed measures to support the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone in Beijing to develop pilot reforms on higher-level independent scientific and technological innovation.

It also adopted a guideline on speeding up the development of a unified national market for electrical power.

During the meeting, Xi called for a critical battle against institutional barriers that affect scientific and technological innovation, and he urged efforts be made to focus on problems, overcome weaknesses and take targeted measures to set up a system that supports higher-level independent innovation and helps raise the nation's innovation capacity in the sector.

He also stressed support for the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone to leverage its resources and strengths to develop pilot reforms on independent scientific and technological innovation.

The meeting's participants highlighted the importance of intensifying the nation's strategic scientific and technological capabilities, establishing a highly efficient organizational system for the research of core technologies in key fields, building a mission-driven, task-oriented national lab system and laying out a plan for building basic science research centers.

While calling for improving the systems of fostering scientists and providing support and incentives to them, they underlined the role of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation.

Efforts should be made to strengthen synergies of the scientific and technological, industrial and financial sectors and accelerate the transfer and application of scientific and technological achievements, they added.

The participants also urged the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone to take more substantial measures in reforms of independent innovation and blaze a trail in solving difficult problems while accumulating experience in risk prevention and mitigation.

Regarding the nation's electrical power market, Xi stressed the need to optimize the allocation of electrical power resources across the country to develop an open, unified, secure and efficient national market system that supports orderly competition and contributes to good management.

Participants in the meeting pointed out that recent years have seen much progress in the development of the market for electrical power as the proportion of market-oriented transactions has risen sharply in terms of the nation's overall power supply.

They underscored the need to strengthen integrated development of the electrical power market across the country, form unified transaction rules and technical standards, and improve the system for the pricing of coal-fired electricity to allow the price of electrical power to fluctuate in line with coal prices.

They said that power supply in the public service sector should be guaranteed and that electricity prices should be comparatively stable for residential use and in the agricultural and public utility sectors.

During the meeting, Xi also urged the development of a system under which principals assume overall responsibility at middle and primary schools under the leadership of Party organizations.

In addition, he stressed the protection, use and inheritance of cultural relics and better presenting them to the world in order to expand China's cultural influence.