BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday called for advancing scientific and technological innovation in frontier and emerging areas, better cultivating new quality productive forces and promoting the country's high-quality development.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during his inspection tour to companies owned by China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile -- the country's three leading telecom operators.

Efforts should be made to steadily advance independent innovation, accelerate the research and development in key areas and strive to achieve original technological breakthroughs in a bid to inject new impetus into industrial transformation and upgrading, Li said.

He called for promoting the deep integration of digital economy and real economy as well as enhancing the construction of new-type infrastructure.

Efforts should be made to quicken the technological research and standards development on 6G in the meantime of accelerating the large-scale application of 5G, Li said, calling for providing better services for private firms and medium and small-sized enterprises.

The premier urged the three leading telecom operators to enhance their sense of responsibility, stick to innovation-driven development, and strive to provide powerful support for the country's development of emerging and future industries.