Profile: Li Keqiang: A man who puts people first (9)

（Xinhua）  09:46, December 24, 2012

During his tenure at the CYLC Central Committee, he chose the site for the country's first primary school of Project Hope in Jinzhai County, east China's Anhui Province. Project Hope, co-launched by the CYLC Central Committee, is a charity dedicated to helping children in poverty-stricken areas access education.

He said he hoped the Hope School could bring hope to children in the CPC's revolutionary bases.

The move inspired other philanthropic actions, such as Youth Volunteers.

When Li left Beijing for Henan Province in June 1998, he set a record by becoming the country's youngest governor with a doctoral degree.

In seven years, Li avoided unnecessary social activities and devoted himself to solving problems concerning Henan's development. Given that the province had learned a bitter lesson from pomposity, Li instructed local officials to keep a low profile, say little and do much.

Breaking Henan's stereotypical image as an agricultural province, Li pursued industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. In 2003, he formally proposed the concept of "the rise of the Central Plains" and put it into practice in Henan.

The Central Plains refer to regions comprising the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, including Henan, Hebei, Shandong and Shanxi provinces.

His proposal and practices became a prototype for the rise of central China, which is home to one-fourth of China's population and accounts for one-fifth of the country's economic output.