Chinese premier urges efforts to boost real economy, expand demand

JINAN, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang has urged efforts to boost the real economy, expand domestic demand and stabilize external demand to promote economic recovery.

Li made the remarks during his inspection tour in Shandong Province from Wednesday to Thursday.

The premier said the real economy is the lifeblood of China's economy. The country should foster advanced manufacturing clusters, make coordinated efforts to transform and upgrade traditional industries, and foster and expand strategic emerging industries, while moving industries to the medium-high end, he said.

He stressed the need for efforts to improve purchasing policies for new-energy vehicles while accelerating the construction of charging piles and other infrastructure, in order to unleash the consumption potential of new-energy vehicles further.

More efforts should be made to build a new platform for international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, expand areas of cooperation, and enhance the complementarity of resources and strengths to achieve mutual benefits, Li said.

When inspecting companies in the city of Qingdao, Li said he hopes that companies will be able to adapt better to users' needs, carry out personalized services, create more competitive products and explore domestic and foreign markets further. He also underlined the importance of efforts to promote the development of the industrial internet to empower small and medium-sized enterprises.

The key to boosting economic recovery is strengthening people's confidence in development, the premier said, stressing the importance of moving the manufacturing industry toward high-end, green and smart development.

The expansion of domestic demand should be integrated with the improvement of people's livelihoods, Li said, calling for the construction of urban and rural infrastructure, and of projects that shore up weak links in public services.

Li noted that the development of new foreign trade business forms and models should be accelerated, and greater efforts should be made to attract and utilize foreign capital and stabilize China's international market share.

Efforts should also be made to forestall and defuse risks in key areas to create a favorable environment for economic development, he said.