Premier Li Keqiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made an important speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct 15, announcing the official launch of the 2020 National Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week.

This year, the week-long event has been held via online channels, yet people's enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and innovation vitality is still on the rise, Premier Li said. Mass entrepreneurship and innovation has been thriving in China, demonstrating the hardworking and innovative spirit of the Chinese people, he added.

The Premier said facing the complex domestic and international situations, China has continued to further reform and opening-up, implement the innovation-driven development strategy and carry out mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

He said mass entrepreneurship and innovation has helped create a large number of market entities and job positions. Hundreds of millions of market entities with strong resilience have played a basic and supportive role in stabilizing the fundamentals of the Chinese economy and helping it resume and rebound quickly, despite the impact of the epidemic and the world's economic recession, the Premier said.

In recent months, increasing new market entities and startups supported employment, and large enterprises also gathered resources for faster upgrade through mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

As China sees complicated and rigorous situations in its development, it presents strong resilience and potential, he said.

Facing the difficulties and challenges with firm confidence, the country should take development as the top priority, promote reform and opening-up and foster strong development, Premier Li said.

He added efforts should be made to ensure stability on six fronts and security in six areas, promote high-quality development and build a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other.

The next step would be maintaining steady economic recovery and growth trends to register positive growth for the whole year. Such growth would be supported by hundreds of millions of market entities, Premier Li said.

Mass innovation and entrepreneurship can play a unique and important role to this end, he added.

Meanwhile, large-scale preferential policies should be implemented, and the supports for medium, small and micro enterprises, individual businesses, and startups should be increased.

Large enterprises are encouraged to build more entrepreneurship and innovation platforms with their advantages, and make innovative integration with small and micro enterprises, as well as startups, for higher-quality innovation, according to the Premier.

He also called for efforts to strengthen the administrative reforms and build a market-oriented, rule-based and international business environment, continuously improve the level of opening-up, treat domestic and foreign enterprises equally and make China a fertile soil for global entrepreneurship and innovation.

Premier Li stressed that entrepreneurship and innovation are the foundation for a nation's success, and all startups should be treated well to encourage the people.

Departments and governments at all levels should firmly implementation policies made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and highlight innovation-driven development to maintain sustainable economic growth, he said.

Premier Li also inspected some startups via video link and encouraged them to provide innovative products and services.

He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, hosted the activity. State Councilor Xiao Jie and Wan Gang, chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, also participated.