Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed the importance of rural vitalization strategy in promoting agricultural upgrading, rural progress and farmers' development in an all-round way.

Rural vitalization strategy is a major strategy put forward at the 19th CPC National Congress, and a historic task of overall importance which concerns fully building a modern socialist country, Xi said on Friday while presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on this issue.

He said that without the modernization of agriculture and the countryside, there would be no modernization of the nation.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of reform in the countryside, and China's rural reform has made historic achievements since then, he said.

China's reform started in the countryside, and China is entering a new chapter of integrated urban and rural development, he added.

President Xi called for deepening the understanding of the major strategy and always making resolving issues concerning agriculture, the countryside and farmers the top priority of the Party's work.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, rural vitalization in China is a great pioneering work that has never been seen before, and there is no ready-made or copyable experience, he noted, calling to take pragmatic approaches in practice.

The Chinese president also values talents.

During the study session, he encouraged more urban talents to join the rural vitalization process and come to rural areas to contribute their innovation and entrepreneurship.

He also urged to put Chinese farmers' most concerned issues to top priority and form a long-term mechanism for sustainable development in realizing rural vitalization.

He stressed that no "image project" is allowed when implementing the strategy.

(With inputs from Xinhua News Agency)

(Cover: File photo of Tengtou Village, Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, China /Xinhua Photo)