He said that measures should be taken to keep the orientation of advanced culture firmly in hand.

"We must uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as our guide in the realm of ideology and have the important thought of Three Represents in command of the development of socialist culture", he said.

"Basing ourselves on the practice of reform, opening up and modernization and keeping abreast of the latest developments in world culture, we must make innovations in content and form so as to enhance the attraction and appeal of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics," he added.

Jiang said that efforts are to be made to continue to carry forward and cultivate the national spirit.

For more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation has evolved a great national spirit centering on patriotism and featuring unity and solidarity, love of peace, industry, courage and ceaseless self-improvement, he said, stressing that confronted with interaction of different thoughts and cultures in the world, it isa crucial task in the cultural development to carry forward and cultivate the national spirit and incorporate it into the national education and the entire process of building spiritual civilization so that the entire people are always filled with an enterprising spirit.

Jiang called for the promotion of ideological and ethical progress, saying that ruling the country by law and ruling the country by virtue complement each other.

It is necessary to establish a socialist ideological and ethical system compatible with the socialist market economy and the socialist legal system and consistent with the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, he said.

"We must intensify education in social and professional ethics and family virtues and especially intensify the ideological and ethical improvement among youth," Jiang added.

Jiang also stressed the development of education and science, saying that education is the foundation for scientific and technological advancement and personnel training.

"Playing a vanguard role and having an overall bearing on the modernization drive, education must be placed on our development agenda as a strategic priority," he said.

Jiang said that it is a must to encourage innovation in education, deepen its reform, promote quality-oriented education to cultivate hundreds of millions of high-quality workers, tens of millions of specialized personnel and a great number of top-notch innovative personnel.

Development of infrastructure for research should be stepped up, while efforts being made to disseminate science and promote the scientific spirit, Jiang said, indicating that it is essential to create an atmosphere in society at large favorable for respecting and promoting science, encouraging innovation and opposing superstition and pseudo-science.

Jiang said the state supports and protects public cultural undertakings and encourages them to enhance their vigor for self-development.

"It is essential to improve policies toward the cultural industry, support its development and enhance its overall strength and competitiveness," he said. Jiang said that the country should deepen the internal reform of cultural enterprises and institutions and gradually establish a management system and operational mechanism favorable to arousing the initiative of cultural workers, encouraging innovation and bringing forth more top-notch works and more outstanding personnel.

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2002)