Hangzhou honors its outstanding local business people with an awards ceremony at the forum. Photos provided to China Daily

Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, held an economic forum for scholars, entrepreneurs, and government officials on Dec 10, under the heading "Innovation: Mission of Entrepreneurs".

It was organized by CCTV as part of a series of warm-up discussions preceding the network's Business Leader of the Year Awards.

In their speeches and Q&A sessions, participants touched on the connection of economic development to environmental protection, improving private sector manufacturing, and of entrepreneurs' social responsibility.

Jiang Taiwei, head of Zhejiang's science and technology bureau, said that innovation involves various kinds of demand as well as investment and innovators, which can be companies, institutes, scientists and specialists.

The core of these, Jiang said, is enterprises and entrepreneurs with an innovative spirit.

"What Zhejiang plans to do is to gather together all the elements needed for innovation and to change ideas into products."

He said the province plans to improve its systems to encourage innovation in the future. This includes intellectual property rights protection, investment, and financing policies.

Liu Haitao, an information technology expert and winner of the 2009 CCTV Business Leader Award, showed the gathering a processing chip for the Internet of Things, an example of China-developed technology.

"We lead international standards in the Internet of Things", said Liu.

"The use of this technology in aviation and other transportation and many other fields shows that China plays a major role, with the core technology made in China."

But the high-tech sector is not the only place where innovation is needed. More traditional industries need it as well, said Huang Fajing, president of Rifeng Lighter Co Ltd.

Rifeng is headquartered in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and Huang was a winner of the 2003 CCTV Business Leader Award.

"Take the lighter business, for example. I don't think the industry is short of money. What we're short of is talented people," Huang said.

"The nation needs to spend more on education to ensure a high-quality workforce."

In addition, he said, an entrepreneur need to be a person with foresight, someone who keeps updating their concepts.

In response, Zhang Hanya, director of the Investment Association of China, pointed out, "Our nation doesn't lack innovative people, but it does lack a culture that encourages innovation."

Zhang, who is also a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission's Investment Institution, added, "Sometimes, even 'strange' ideas can be great innovators."