China's State Council stresses accelerating development of advanced manufacturing clusters

BEIJING -- China's State Council has deliberated and adopted a guideline on accelerating the development of advanced manufacturing clusters, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang on Friday.

The meeting called for greater priority to be given to the development of advanced manufacturing clusters, taking the whole country into account, guiding all localities to leverage their comparative advantages and intensifying work related to specialization and differentiation.

Work should be done to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, as well as the cultivation and strengthening of emerging industries, it said. Work should also be done to facilitate technological innovation and application, advance the country's high-end, smart and green transformation, and expand the number of high-quality enterprises, it said.

The meeting pledged to combine an effective market with an active government in an improved manner, and create a sound ecological environment for industrial development.

The meeting also made arrangements on speeding up the construction of charging infrastructure to better promote new energy vehicles in rural areas and rural vitalization.

Efforts should be made to focus on the prominent bottlenecks restricting the promotion of new energy vehicles in rural areas, moderately advance the construction of charging infrastructure, and innovate the mode of construction, operations and maintenance of charging infrastructure.

The country will optimize its policies supporting the purchase and use of new energy vehicles further, encourage enterprises to enrich supply, and strengthen safety supervision to promote the healthy development of the new energy vehicle market in rural areas, according to the meeting.