Xi stresses revival of Northeast China heavy industry hub

CHANGCHUN - President Xi Jinping has urged China's northeast to speed up reform and innovation to revive the former major heavy industry hub.

Xi made the remarks at a meeting after an inspection tour to Jilin from Thursday to Saturday, where he urged the province to strive for breakthroughs while adapting itself to the "new normal" of slower economic development.

Xi reassured local governments that the Chinese economy is in good condition and still enjoys a promising growth outlook.

Xi said that building a market-oriented and vital institutional mechanism is the fundamental solution to the region's revival.

Xi urged local governments to continue to streamline administration approvals and delegate power to lower-level governments, improve the market environment and reform state-owned enterprises to become stronger and more competitive.

Stressing the optimization and upgrade of the industrial structure, Xi urged the province to step up its efforts to foster emerging industries and boost the service industry while further developing modern agriculture.

"More efforts should be made to push forward the innovation drive to boost the vigor of society in innovation," Xi said.

Xi urged local governments to create an innovation-friendly policy environment with preferential measures to encourage financial resources to serve the real economy.

Meanwhile, Xi pointed out that local governments should improve public services to address issues in education, employment, food safety and other fields as well as nurture emerging needs such as elder care, entertainment and healthcare services.