Chinese Vice Premier stresses balanced economic development, raising people's living standards

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang called for more efforts to promote coordinated economic development and improve the people's living standards.

Li made the remarks during an inspection tour to north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from Monday to Tuesday.

"Helping impoverished families to meet their basic housing needs is a major program aimed at improving people's living standards," said Li, adding that this was also a major move to expand domestic demand and stimulate economic growth.

Making large-scale efforts to push forward low-income housing projects is an overriding task for the improvement of the people's livelihoods and the promotion of development, said Li.

"More efforts must be made to implement the policies designed to ensure funding, land and fair distribution for low-income housing projects," said Li.

He called for the establishment of a supervisory system for the rare earth industry, and intensive exploitation and efficient utilization of rare earth, a kind of natural resources that the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is rich in.

Li also urged more efforts to ensure the safety of milk sources and push forward the pilot reforms of county-level hospitals to make healthcare more affordable.