Chinese State Councilor Chen Zhili has called for more efforts to promote innovation to improve energy efficiency and work safety in the country.

Chen made the appeal during her inspection tour from Tuesday to Thursday to north China's Shanxi Province, the country's major coal producer that sees frequent coal mine accidents and suffers environmental woes.

She urged local officials to revamp traditional industries to improve productivity, saying scientific innovation is a key to transform the economic growth mode.

Chen said more efforts should be focused on developing technologies to reduce energy consumption and better protect the environment.

She also called local officials to replace outdated production facilities with more modern ones and to train more high-skilled work staff.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2007)