CCTV9英语新闻：Chinese premier: Innovation is the path for Asia（在线收听）

The Boao Forum for Asia will draw to a close today in China’s southernmost province of Hainan. Under the theme “Asia’s New Future: New Dynamics, New Vision,” the four-day event this year witnessed more than 70 formal discussions on inclusive finance, Internet banking, Asian capital going global and regional security.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang gave the keynote speech at the opening ceremony, saying that Asia as a whole can overcome its current difficulties and embrace the future through cooperation.

In his address, Li said it was inevitable that some industries would come under pressure as China restructured its economy.

“The sustained downward pressure on the economy is quite large, we are currently experiencing inevitable and unavoidable pain in the transformation and upgrading process, especially some chemical industries are experiencing difficulties in operation. We won’t avoid these difficulties,” Li said. 

China is aiming to shut down so-called “zombie companies” that over produce, such as the coal and steel industries, while upgrading the country's manufacturing sector.

And, for the first time, the country’s economic growth target has been set in a range  between 6.5 and 7 percent instead of a specific point, to avoid policy-makers being influenced by economic fluctuations.

Li said it was time to pay more attention to the quality of China’s products.

“We absolutely won’t use a devaluation to stimulate exports, the products it would stimulate are not high-quality products, are not products that would make companies more competitive or make them more innovative. What we want to gradually release to the world are upgraded, middle- to high-end products,” he said. 

To get to where it wants to be, China is using market tools, whilst encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation.

And according to Chinese Economist Li Daokui, the agenda will also stimulate employment.

“China’s economy is gathering new momentum by encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship, which will create new job opportunities to offset the impact of jobs losses from industrial overcapacity reductions,” Li said.

And that is not only for China. Premier Li said its innovation-driven growth model should be applied to the whole of Asia, saying the continent can only have a bright future with a skilled labor force fused with innovative thinking.