The people's intellectual and cultural needs are constantly increasing along with the economic development and social progress in China, so the government must attach greater importance to cultural development, Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday.

"It is necessary to energetically develop an advanced socialist culture," he said in his report on the work of the government delivered at the opening of the Second Session of the Tenth National People's Congress.

China will press ahead with formulating an overall plan for cultural restructuring and a program for cultural development, according to the premier.

"We should promote the reform of the system and innovation of the mechanisms of the cultural industry, give more support to non-profit cultural undertakings and improve our policy for the cultural industry to give a greater role to the market and ensure the simultaneous development of cultural undertakings and the cultural industry," he said.

The government should do more to protect our cultural relics and archives as well as our natural and cultural heritage, said the premier, and it should continue to strengthen the development and management of the market for cultural products and the Internet, fight unremittingly against pornographic and illegal publications and actively conduct cultural exchanges with other countries.

(People's Daily March 5, 2004)