Chinese premier stresses efforts to benefit people

TAIYUAN, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Premier Li Keqiang has stressed solid work on benefiting the people and constantly improving their living standards amid continuous development.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during his inspection tour in Yuncheng of north China's Shanxi Province on Sunday.

During his visit to a market for Lunar New Year goods shopping, Li learned about the supply conditions and prices of pork, beef, mutton and vegetables, stressing the need to ensure food quality and safety, and to produce more green organic agricultural products to benefit both businesses and consumers.

Li also visited Wu Village in Xia County, which has shaken off absolute poverty. He delivered goods and well wishes to villagers for the coming Lunar New Year.

Talking with the villagers about household incomes, the size of farmland, the number of people working and their expectations, Li said the country is promoting rural vitalization and will continue to assist the poor and consolidate poverty alleviation. People's lives will get better and better through hard work, he said.

Li appreciated the use of branches and straw for heating and cooking in the village. He stressed that the fuel for winter heating should be chosen based on local conditions and the government should bring more convenience to people's lives.

During his visit to a household in a rundown urban area, Li asked about the situations regarding employment, income, medicare reimbursement and kindergarten tuition.

Hearing about people's expectations on community renovation and the local government's efforts at introducing market forces to accelerate the renovation, Li said the country will continue to support the renovation of old urban residential communities to let more people move into convenient and comfortable new homes as early as possible.

While visiting a logistics center, Li said that the logistics and express-delivery sector is the main artery of economic circulation.

Knowing that the cost of express delivery has dropped sharply in the past two years, Li said this is conducive to boosting consumption, promoting the development of the industry and expanding employment, especially flexible employment.

He called for more efforts to perform solid work on epidemic prevention and control on a regular basis, continuously achieve new and greater results on economic development and the improvement of people's livelihoods, and promote high-quality development.