BEIJING, Sept. 10 -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over a meeting on promoting the full revitalization of northeast China in the new era.

The meeting was held in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, on Sept. 7. Xi delivered an important speech.

He stressed that to revitalize northeast China on the new journey of the new era, it is imperative to implement the arrangement made at the 20th CPC National Congress for new breakthroughs in the full revitalization of northeast China, fully, faithfully and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, firmly grasp the important mission of northeast China in safeguarding the five major securities (political, economic, military, cultural and social securities) of the country, and firmly grasp the primary task of promoting high-quality development and the strategic task of building new development paradigm.

It is also important to coordinate development and security, adopt goal-oriented and problem-oriented approaches, and consolidate strengths and make up for deficiencies.

He called for more support and stimulating endogenous motivating power, and emphasized the need to blaze a new path for high-quality and sustainable development with tenacity, more courage and concrete actions, so as to write a new chapter for the full revitalization of northeast China.

Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Ding Xuexiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Zheng Shanjie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Hao Peng, secretary of the CPC Committee of Liaoning Province, Jing Junhai, secretary of the CPC Committee of Jilin Province, Xu Qin, secretary of the CPC Committee of Heilongjiang Province, and Sun Shaocheng, secretary of the CPC Committee of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region delivered speeches about the work on promoting the full revitalization of northeast China, and put forward opinions and suggestions.

Having listened to their speeches, Xi delivered an important speech. He stressed that since the symposium was held on further promoting the revitalization of northeast China in September 2018 in Shenyang, the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have made new progress and achievements in this regard.

The region's role as a "ballast" to secure national food security has been further cemented, the foundation of its industrial security continuously consolidated, its role of energy security protection continuously strengthened, its function as ecological security barrier constantly strengthened, its ability to safeguard national defense steadily improved, and reform and opening-up in the region has taken on a new look.

Xi noted that with its rich resources, solid industrial foundation and unique advantages in geographic location, northeast China has enormous potential for development.

Currently, the full revitalization of northeast China is embracing new major opportunities: Efforts to build self-reliance and strength in science and technology at higher levels will help the region turn its strengths in science, education and industries into growth advantages; the building of a new development pattern further highlights the region's significant strategic position; to promote Chinese modernization, northeast China's role as a strategic pillar needs to be bolstered. On the new journey of building a strong country and advancing national rejuvenation, northeast China will regain its vitality and make new achievements.

Xi stressed the importance to promote industrial innovation with sci-tech innovation, and accelerate the development of a modern industrial system with the characteristics and advantages of northeast China.

In the course of fully revitalizing the region, it is a must to develop the real economy, encourage sci-tech innovation, and promote the upgrading of its industries. While focusing on independent innovation, which holds the key to development, the region must consolidate what it has achieved, boost further development, extend its industrial chain, and increase its added value.

Efforts should be made to accelerate the transformation of the traditional manufacturing industry in terms of digital, internet and intelligent technologies, and extend the industrial chain upstream and downstream, so as to form a complete industrial chain and industrial cluster.

Northeast China should actively align itself with national strategic needs, integrate and optimize innovation resources in science and education, and increase investment in research and development, so as to have more key and core technologies.

While building more industrial parks, the region needs to deepen pairing-off cooperation, and facilitate the application of scientific research outcomes. It is necessary to foster strategic emerging industries including new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing and electronic information, and nurture industries of the future, in a bid to create new productivity boosters and new growth impetus.

The region should speed up the development of clean energy such as wind, photovoltaic and nuclear power, and establish energy bases integrating wind, photovoltaic, fossil and nuclear power as well as energy storage.

It is also urgent to intensify the conservation and utilization of ecological resources, and make full use of the region's advantages in ecological environment and biological resources, so as to develop modern biology, big data and other emerging industries with characteristics, and boost the development of the ice and snow economy and the marine economy.

It's vital to further the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOE), implement special actions for their revitalization, improve their core competitiveness, promote the flow of state-owned capital to important industries and key areas, in a bid to strengthen their strategic supporting role.

It is also important to innovate the cooperation model between central SOEs and local governments, and promote such integrated development to better drive the growth of local economy. It is imperative to support, encourage and guide the healthy development of the private economy, implement more preferential policies for small and medium-sized enterprises, and create a good environment for the common development of enterprises of various types of ownership.

Xi noted that we should prioritize the development of modern agriculture and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Northeast China should serve as a "ballast" in ensuring national food security, he stressed, urging the region to prioritize food security and improve its comprehensive grain production capacity, so as to ensure sufficient grain production and supply in normal times, and enough surplus to provide in extreme cases.

It is imperative to increase investment, take the lead in building normal farmland into high standard one, and expand the scope of black soil conservation. Besides, supporting projects such as river-lake connectivity and the upgrading of large irrigation areas are also necessary, and the vitalization of the seed industry also needs to be promoted.

All these measures are aimed at cultivating modern and high-quality farmland with high and stable yields regardless of drought or flood. We need to practice a "Greater Food" approach, develop and utilize various resources in northeast China rationally, and actively develop modern ecological aquaculture, to build agriculture into a big industry, in which the planting of food crops, cash crops, and feed crops are planned together, and agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing are developed together.

It is necessary to promote the initial and deep processing of agricultural products, extend the industrial chain, enhance the value chain, expand the space for agricultural development, and raise agricultural efficiency and farmers' income.

Xi further stressed the need to accelerate the construction of a modern infrastructure system and enhance the level of opening up and cooperation domestically and internationally. Northeast China is an important gateway for the country's northward opening up, and its strategic position and role in strengthening regional cooperation in northeast Asia and the interplay between domestic and international flows are increasingly prominent.

It is imperative for the region to be more conscious of its role as a frontier and of opening up, strengthen its ties with coastal areas in east China and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and integrate itself more deeply into the Belt and Road Initiative, so as to play a bigger role in boosting the domestic flow of the economy and connecting the domestic and international markets.

It is also imperative to systematically arrange the construction of modern infrastructure system in northeast China, speed up feasibility study and the building of oil and gas pipelines, high-speed railway and rail networks, new power grids and power delivery channels and the new generation of mobile communication and data networks, and further efforts to dovetail with major national strategies such as the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the large-scale development of the western region of China, so as to ensure that northeast China can be better integrated into the unified national market.

Institutional opening-up covering rules, regulations, management and standards should also be steadily expanded. Ports of entry should also see their capability of customs clearance improved and relevant procedures simplified.

Xi noted that the overall population quality should be improved so that the revitalization of northeast China on all fronts can be sustained by the high-quality development of the population. Greater efforts must be made to develop childcare services that can benefit all to alleviate the burden of giving birth, raising and educating children on households and keep the birth rate and population within an appropriate range.

Efforts should be intensified to develop basic education and increase support for northeast China to run and operate more higher education institutions, so as to ensure that all the people especially young people are better educated and improve the population quality. The region should also optimize the industrial environment for innovation, strengthen the development and application of human resources.

We will provide more supportive policies for the region's talent revitalization, and create more platforms for people to start businesses and engage in innovation, to support the region to retain its existing workforce while introducing new talent.

We should also speed up efforts to plan and arrange the construction of infrastructure such as transportation, communication, energy and water conservancy in border areas, and build more public service facilities in villages in border areas so as to promote rural revitalization in all respects, Xi said.

He added that it's imperative to retain the existing population while at the same time encouraging the development of industries with distinctive features such as border trade, border tourism and agricultural product processing.

More support will be given to building new education institutes providing vocational courses in border cities, and efforts will be made to enhance industrial loading capacity of counties and small townships and their capabilities to increase population. Stronger supportive policies for assisting the protection of border areas will be implemented.

Xi called for efforts to further improve the political landscape and create a sound business environment. The unyielding spirit of northeast united army against Japanese aggression, the dedication of the "iron man" in Daqing oilfield and the enterprising spirit of Beidahuang pioneers should be carried forward.

Party members, officials should be guided in having a correct understanding of what it means to perform well, and motivated to be engaged in undertakings with enthusiasm. The work to improve conduct and build integrity within the Party should be strengthened to make Party members not have the audacity, opportunity and desire to become corrupt.

It is imperative to strictly implement the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving conduct, urge Party members, officials, especially leading officials, to keep clean and honest in conducting political affairs and performing their duties. They are required to emancipate their minds, change traditional views, enhance market awareness, gain a stronger sense of service, and overcome pointless formalities and bureaucratism.

It is crucial to develop a cordial and clean relationship between government and businesses across the board. Party members and officials need to provide support to private enterprises, taking the initiative to tackle the difficulties they face while keeping themselves clean and honest. They need to be adept at using law-based mentality and means to resolve problems, defuse tensions, and coordinate relations.

In addition, it is vital to build integrity and credibility among the public, strengthen intellectual property right protection, combat and root out organized crime on regular basis so as to create a stable, transparent, regular, and predictable business environment under the rule of law.

No effort should be spared to defuse local debt risks, speed up the risk management of small and medium-sized financial institutions, and strengthen financial supervision mechanism so as to create a sound financial environment.

Work should be strengthened to send officials from northeast China on secondment to departments of the CPC Central Committee and the central government, as well as to the southeast coastal region, and the other way round, so as to optimize the structure of official ranks, and improve their competence. It is important to manage officials in a strict manner, but they must be given enough care for their all-round development.

In terms of officials' conduct, three distinctions should be made, namely the distinction between errors due to lack of experience and illegal actions, errors from trials and actions in defiance of laws and regulations, and negligence resulting from the pursuit of development and the illegal actions for personal gains.

The mechanism to motivate and protect officials who are active to perform their duties should be optimized to create an environment, in which those competent are promoted, those mediocre are demoted, and those incompetent are dismissed.

Xi Jinping noted that strengthening the Party leadership and Party building is the guarantee to ensure the revitalization of northeast China in an all-around way. A good job must be done to establish connection between the first and the second round of theoretical study program, and implement the targets and measures of the CPC Central Committee.

It is imperative to deepen the theoretical study, enhance cohesion and forge the Party's soul with the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and keep the thoughts and actions of the Party members and officials aligned with the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans so as to boost their confidence and morale.

Fact-finding must be prioritized to strengthen the capability of Party members and officials, especially leading officials, to make decisions in a well-planned way, solve practical problems, and better implement plans and arrangements.

Focusing on promoting high-quality development, Party members and officials must be guided to fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, implement the people-centered philosophy of development, and open new ground for development with a sound and pragmatic attitude.

Efforts must be made to intensify inspections and follow-up rectifications and urge Party members and officials to face up to and correct problems related to Party consciousness, Party conduct, and Party discipline to boost people's confidence in development with fresh and healthy custom and practices.

Xi stressed that since the flood season came, some areas in northeast China have been affected by severe flooding and waterlogging. The CPC Central Committee has made comprehensive arrangements for flood relief and post-flood reconstruction.

Provincial Party committees and governments in the three provinces in northeast China (Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province, and Liaoning Province) and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region should strictly implement the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans, make solid efforts on restoration and reconstruction, ensure those affected have a warm home in winter and students in flood-stricken areas return to school, and restore production and life order there as soon as possible.

The region must stay on high alert for the autumn flood and make full preparations for disaster rescue and relief.

Ding Xuexiang said in his speech that under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we should implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and the gist of General Secretary Xi's speech, and firmly grasp the mission of the times, work to both pursue development and safeguard security, and make further breakthrough for full revitalization of northeast China so as to better serve the country's overall development.

Work should be done to implement the innovation-driven development strategy, step up efforts to build the region into a hub of innovation, promote greater synergy between industry, academia, research, and application, and advance high-quality development with high-level innovation.

It is necessary to comprehensively deepen reform, create a better business environment, remain steadfast in expanding institutional opening up, and stimulate endogenous vitality. We should adhere to the people-centered philosophy of development and make solid efforts to well handle every single affair related to people's well-being to make people feel more fulfilled, happier, and securer.

Li Ganjie, He Lifeng, Mu Hong, and Jiang Xinzhi attended the meeting. Also present were leading officials of relevant central Party and government departments, leading officials of relevant local government departments and those in charge from relevant enterprises.