Workers throughout China were urged on Monday, at a grand gathering attended by President Xi Jinping, to forge ahead with innovation and focus on key technologies in enhancing their independent innovation capacities to contribute to the nation's rejuvenation drive.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joined about 2,000 delegates in Beijing at the opening session of the 18th National Congress of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Addressing the session on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, encouraged workers to excel through hard work and dedication, engage in in-depth research, develop their skills and serve the nation.

"The working class forms the most solid and dependable foundation for our Party," he told the gathering, which included representatives of workers from across the nation, including those from new industries such as food delivery and ride-sharing, as well as traditional industries such as railways.

Cai called on workers to show their dedication to the nation's major strategies, projects and key industries, and make new accomplishments in economic growth.

The nation's trade unions should establish comprehensive systems for skills development and career advancement to foster more high-caliber talent, he said.

In a work report delivered at the opening session, Wang Dongming, chairman of the ACFTU, said the federation will prioritize efforts to facilitate job creation and boost aid packages to the unemployed and workers facing difficulties.

Wang pledged steps to encourage employers to refine their incentive mechanisms for technical workers and enable their income distribution to lean more toward grassroots workers.

The federation will push the nation's platform companies to standardize their employment methods, adjust their algorithms and pilot mechanisms for occupational hazard protection, he said.