Premier Wen Jiabao has urged the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to lead the way in China's modernization drive.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (2nd L) visits Zhang Lingzhi's family during an inspection in a village in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, July 1, 2003. [xinhua]

The SEZ should continue to serve as a pioneer and model for the country's reform, opening-up and modernization process, Wen said on Tuesday during an inspection tour of Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province.

Wen, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, arrived in Shenzhen on Tuesday morning after attending celebrations marking the sixth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China, and the signing ceremony of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between Hong Kong and the mainland.

Wen said China has entered a new phase of building a relatively affluent society and accelerating socialist modernization. The Shenzhen SEZ should play a leading role in that process.

He asked Shenzhen to deepen reform, seize development opportunities, open wider to the outside world, and promote sustainable social and economic development.

Wen paid special attention to Shenzhen's high-tech sector, inspecting local high-tech enterprises and encouraging them to improve their competitive edges.

The zone should have more reforms in systems, science and technology to take a lead in technological innovation and in building a comparatively perfect socialism market economy.

Shenzhen should also do more to reform its industrial structure, increasing the proportion of high-tech industries and accelerating development of a modern service sector, Wen noted.

Development should occur sustainably and harmoniously between urban and rural areas, and humans and nature, to improve people's material, cultural, health and living standards.

Wen listened to the work report of the Guangdong provincial and Shenzhen municipal governments, and praised their achievements in combating SARS and developing the economy.

During his inspection tour, Wen told staff at Shenzhen Donghu Hospital that Chinese medical workers did an outstanding job in the fight against SARS, and they are heroes who have made great contributions to the country and people.

During his tour, he also paid his respects to the statue of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in Lianhuashan Park and visited local residents.

Just under Deng's guidance, Shenzhen developed into the first special economic zone in the country in the 1980s.

And it was during an inspection tour of Shenzhen in the early 1990s that Deng, for the first time, raised the idea of establishing a socialist market economy in China to replace its planned economy.

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