Xiao Jie, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), led a team to Southwest China's Sichuan province from April 9 to 12 to survey the economic performance in the first quarter.

The team held symposiums in the cities of Chengdu and Yibin to listen to the reports and opinions of provincial and municipal authorities, as well as those of representatives of related enterprises, and conducted on-site surveys at enterprises and research institutions in Yibin and Meishan.

Xiao fully affirmed the new achievements Sichuan has made in economic and social development, stressing the necessity to enhance the NPC's supervision over the economic work and integrate support with supervision in a bid to promote the implementation of the decisions made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

He called for the province to consolidate and enhance the positive trend of economic recovery and promote economic growth in both quantity and quality to steadily advance high-quality development.

Efforts should be made to further increase investment in basic and cutting-edge research, give full play to the leading role of enterprises in innovation, accelerate the transformation and application of scientific and technological innovation achievements, and foster new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions, he added.