China considers the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and the interests of IPR proprietors as being extremely important, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday in Hamburg at a Sino-European economic summit.

China was firm in its resolve to protect intellectual property rights and had made important progress in this regard, said Wen in a speech at the 2nd Hamburg Summit entitled "China meets Europe."

"To us in China, to protect IPR is both an international obligation and a requirement for promoting China's own development and enhancing its capacity for independent innovation," Wen said.

To protect the IPR is to respect knowledge, encourage innovation and protect productivity, he said.

"We must make sure that in China, the steps taken to protect IPR are as hard as steel rather than something that is soft like bean curd," said the premier, adding that China would speed up the law making process and put into place a legal regime that conformed with international practices and covered all areas of IPR protection.

"We will improve mechanisms for IPR protection, strengthen law enforcement, provide both administrative and legal protection on a mutually reinforcing basis, crack down hard on IPR violations and truly protect the interests of IPR proprietors," he said.

Meanwhile, the premier pledged to intensify public education efforts regarding these issues in order to raise the general awareness of the importance of IPR protection.

"We will also take an active part in international exchanges and cooperation and work towards more progress in the international effort of IPR protection," Wen said.

The Chamber of Commerce Hamburg, which initiated the summit, expected more than 350 economic, political and scientific leaders from both China and Europe to attend the event which will run until Friday.

Germany's Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Michael Glos, the Mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust, and former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt were among the German leaders who attended the summit on Wednesday.

Wen arrived in Germany on Wednesday for a two-day visit, the third leg of his four-nation tour, which has so far taken him to Finland and Britain and will also include a visit to Tajikistan.

The Chinese premier will meet German President Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday.

Source: Xinhua