NANCHANG — Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan has stressed the importance of improving the cultivation of innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education institutions to provide a talent reserve for the country's high-quality development.

Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a two-day inspection tour of East China's Jiangxi province, which began on Oct 16.

Sun said the approach to talent cultivation should be optimized and that innovation and entrepreneurship education should be integrated into the whole process of talent training.

Noting that China boasts the world's largest higher education system, Sun urged colleges and universities to cultivate more high-caliber talent and teams in innovation through multi-disciplinary integration.

She also called for the deeper integration of industry, academia and research, and the strengthening of financial support for innovation and business startups.

While inspecting a national training base for vocational education, Sun stressed the importance of practical training and ordered efforts to make vocational education more attractive.