BEIJING, May 10 -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for accelerated development of vocational education.

Li made the remarks in his instruction to the Vocational Education Week that opened Sunday morning. He said developing modern vocational education is an effort to exert China's abundant talent advantage, encourage people to start businesses and make innovations.

The Vocational Education Week is aimed to create a consensus among the public that it is honorable to work, still better to have a specialty skill and greater to be able to innovate, Li added.

The Premier said vocational education should be quality and employment oriented and serve the development. Reform, innovation and integration of education and production should be focused, in a bid to cultivate a high-quality labor force, and improve the manufacturing and service quality of China.

In the launch ceremony of the Vocational Education Week, Vice Premier Liu Yandong said developing vocational education is important to social and economic development, and should be made a prominent part of China's educational reform.

The Vocational Education Week, which started this year, is held in the second week of May every year.