Innovation in technology and systems should be encouraged in realizing local sustainable development, said Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan during his visit to south China's Guangdong Province.

Zeng visited Guangdong from Tuesday to Thursday where he inspected some local high-tech enterprises.

Zeng said that Guangdong's economy has been developing steadily and rapidly, attributing the achievements mainly to the development of high-tech and modern service enterprises, small and medium sized companies and businesses of diverse forms of ownership.

Guangdong should guide those enterprises to play a major role in local economic development by strengthening industrial policies and development planning and improving their innovation capacity to lead the industrial structure to a new level, said Zeng.

Guangdong saw a downward trend of energy consumption and pollutant emissions in the first half of the year, in contrast with increases of both indexes for the rest of the country.

Zeng emphasized that effective use of energy and environmental protection should be further enhanced and the land control policies of the central government should be implemented to the letter in guiding local land use.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2006)