Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday called on domestic firms to improve product quality and build their own world-class brands in order to secure the reputation of the "Made in China" label.

The Chinese government has always attached great importance to product quality because "it has a direct bearing on people's immediate interests, the survival and development of firms and the national image," Wen told a national work meeting in Beijing.

Only firms with good product quality are competitive and able to increase their share on the international market, he added.

The premier said as food safety is a global issue, China is ready to strengthen international exchanges and cooperation and solve international divergence on the issue through dialogue, negotiations and investigations.

"We understand good product quality is the most persuasive argument," he said. "We will not evade the problems, but oppose biased media reports, trade protectionism and discrimination."

Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said last week that China had established bilateral and multilateral mechanisms on food safety with its trade partners like the United States, the European Union and Japan.

In the first half of the year, more than 99 percent of the Chinese foods exported to these countries and regions were up to standards.

Wen also told the meeting that China should tighten supervision of product quality by tightening market access for food manufacturers and setting up a monitoring system that covers plantations, breeding farms and production bases.

The country should also ensure its major quality standards keep abreast with international standards, he said.

All government agencies must be mobilized to launch intensive crackdown campaigns on productions quality violations, Wen said, adding that such campaigns shall particularly target small manufacturers, food and health-related products.

From December 2006 to May 2007, AQSIQ discovered 23,000 cases of fake and low-quality food, involving 200 million yuan (26 million U.S. dollars). A total of 180 food manufacturers were shutdown during the period.