Fostering of world-class firms stressed

President Xi Jinping emphasized on Tuesday the importance of leveraging the country's strength of socialism with Chinese characteristics to improve the modern corporate system and foster more world-class enterprises.

Xi made the remark when presiding over the fifth meeting of the central commission for deepening overall reform of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee. He is head of the commission.

The modern corporate system with distinctive Chinese characteristics features clearly defined ownership and responsibilities of companies, the separation of government functions from corporate management, and scientific management.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said efforts should also be made to strengthen the Party's leadership and improve corporate governance.

To improve the modern corporate system with distinctive Chinese features, it was agreed at the meeting that it is essential to respect the principal role of enterprises in their operations, adhere to a problem-oriented approach, and implement tailored policies based on factors such as the size, development stage and ownership of the enterprises.

Capable private enterprises should be encouraged to establish a modern corporate system, improve their corporate governance structure, and enhance risk prevention mechanisms, among others, the meeting said.

Xi also urged efforts to foster a globally competitive open environment for scientific and technological innovation, saying that it is important to insist on promoting innovation through opening-up.

He required work to be done to improve the systems and mechanisms for international scientific and technological cooperation, focus on opening-up in key areas and at crucial links, and overcome institutional weaknesses in opening-up and innovation.

It was stressed at the meeting that equal emphasis should be given to the strategies of "going global" and "bringing in", and international exchanges and cooperation in the scientific and technological fields should be expanded, for the country to get deeply involved in global sci-tech governance.

The meeting also noted the importance of cultivating an internationalized environment for research.

To this end, efforts should be made to address the practical concerns of and solve problems for researchers, to ensure that talented individuals are introduced, are willing to stay and are properly utilized so that they can continuously contribute their wisdom, it said.

The meeting also emphasized the need to build a strong line of defense to protect scientific and technological security in an open environment by improving related systems and risk prevention mechanisms.

The meeting deliberated and approved guidelines on optimizing the modern corporate system with Chinese characteristics, safeguarding grain-growing farmers' incomes and improving compensation mechanisms in major grain-producing areas, and building a globally competitive open environment for scientific and technological innovation.