HANGZHOU — President Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed coordinating efforts for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) control and economic and social development, and striving to achieve this year's goals for economic and social progress.

Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during an inspection tour for COVID-19 control and work resumption in East China's Zhejiang province from March 29 to April 1.

On March 29, Xi visited the Chuanshan port area of the Ningbo Zhoushan Port, whose throughput has recovered to normal levels due to the timely measures it adopted to resume production.

The Ningbo Zhoushan Port took the lead in resuming production, which was of great significance to promoting Chinese enterprises to resume work and production as well as restoring the logistics system and the global industrial chains, Xi said.

He called for efforts to cope with and blunt the adverse impact on cargo shipping brought by restrictive measures adopted by various countries to fight coronavirus.

He also urged facilitation for the country's smooth trade flow.

Xi said Zhoushan port plays an important role in the building of the Belt and Road, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the integration of the Yangtze River Delta.

As one of the world's top container ports, the Zhoushan Port handled about 1.12 billion metric tons of cargo in 2019.

Leaving the port, Xi visited an industrial park that produces high-end auto parts and molds in the city of Ningbo, where he inspected resumption of work and production at a privately-owned manufacturer.

By the assembly line, Xi asked the workers if they encountered any difficulties on their way back to work or in daily life, and if they got their paychecks on time.

"Normal production of enterprises can keep the national economy on track and create employment opportunities for the public," Xi said.

Stressing that China's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are smart, full of vitality and good at braving challenges and striving for greatness, Xi said the SMEs will surely pull through the hard times and embrace better development with support from the Party, the government and society.

Green, smart development

On March 30, Xi went to Yucun village in the county of Anji, where he was greeted with applause and cheers of villagers thronging along the village roads to welcome his visit.

In 2005, it was in this mountainous village that Xi, then secretary of Zhejiang provincial committee of the CPC, put forward the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."

Yucun has adhered to that concept and pursued green development for the past 15 years.

Revisiting the village, Xi said economic development should not be achieved at the expense of the ecological environment.

To protect the ecological environment is to develop the productive forces, Xi said.

He stressed the equal importance of urban and rural modernization.

Leaving the village, Xi went to Anji's mediation center to learn about how primary-level civil disputes are resolved.

Xi stressed adopting diversified methods to prevent, mediate and resolve civil disputes, for example through a mechanism where people file their complaints and Party members and officials can reach out to them more effectively.

Xi visited the Xixi National Wetland Park in the provincial capital of Hangzhou on March 31. Along the way, Xi was greeted by people touring the park, and he waved back to express his regards.

Stopping by vendor booths that make Hangzhou's well-known Longjing tea and sell local signature cultural products, Xi encouraged the vendors to inherit and develop traditional handicrafts and other forms of intangible cultural heritage.

He asked Hangzhou to better lay out production, residence and environmental functions in urban planning to create a resident-friendly city where humans and nature coexist and thrive in harmony.

Xi then visited the City Brain, a smart city platform aiming to improve urban management, and learned how Hangzhou uses the technology to ease traffic congestions, manage the city and fight the COVID-19 epidemic.

Advancing the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance requires stepping up modernizing the system and capacity for urban management, Xi said.

Xi stressed utilizing big data, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies to innovate in the methods, models and visions of urban management and to make cities "smarter."

Opportunities and challenges

While hearing work reports made by Zhejiang provincial committee of the CPC and provincial government on April 1, Xi said the epidemic situation in China is moving steadily in a positive direction, and the peak of the current COVID-19 outbreak is over in the country.

The risk posed by imported cases, however, has sharply risen as the pandemic is accelerating its spread across the world, said Xi, stressing intensified management of asymptomatic virus cases in China.

China will make preventing imported cases the top priority in its COVID-19 response at present and even for a "prolonged" period of time, he said.

Though the increasingly fast spread of COVID-19 abroad has disrupted international economic and trade activities and brought new challenges to China's economic development, it has also provided fresh opportunities for expediting the country's development in science and technology and advancing industrial upgrading, Xi noted.

More efforts should be made to accelerate and further expand work and production resumption in an orderly manner on the premise of strictly implementing COVID-19 control measures, he said.

Xi called for efforts to smooth global supply chains to ensure normal economic and trade activities.

While seizing the opportunities of industrial digitization and digital industrialization, China also needs to expedite the construction of "new infrastructure" projects such as 5G networks and data centers, and deploy strategic emerging sectors and industries of the future including digital economy, life health services and new materials, he said.

Xi also stressed the importance of expanding reform of important areas and key links.

Efforts must be made to improve the mechanism for major epidemic prevention and control and the public health emergency response and management system, said Xi, stressing carrying out extensive patriotic health campaigns.

He called for putting in place sound systems and policies for promoting integrated urban-rural development, and speeding up the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

Xi demanded efforts to guarantee an adequate supply of food with stable prices for urban residents and ensure sufficient income for rural people.

Calling the anti-virus fight a "test" for governance over the Party, Xi urged better Party building work at all levels.