BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Wu Bangguo has stressed the importance of independent innovation amid the global financial crisis and called on engineering workers to boost research to serve the country's economic development.

    Wu, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remark during his visit to the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) on Wednesday.

    Every major achievement that China has made could not be realized without technological breakthroughs and innovations contributed by the engineering academicians and experts, Wu said.

Wu Bangguo (R, front), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), inspects the Chinese Academy of Engineering and meets with some academicians in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 4, 2009

China's overall economic development so far this year is better than expectations, thanks to the government stimulus package, which proved to be correct, effective and timely, he said.

    To enhance independent innovations is an urgent need for keeping the economy to develop fastly and steadily as the foundation of economic recovery is not solid yet, said Wu.

    Wu encouraged CAE's academicians and experts to focus their researches on cutting-edge fields such as low-carbon technology, new energy, bio-medicine, IT, intelligent electricity grid and neo-energy vehicles, to provide technological support to the country's industrial upgrading and cultivation of new economic growth area.

    Wu said CAE's more than 700 academicians are "valuable treasure" of the country, urging greater efforts to be made to provide better environment and conditions for their researches.