Profile: Li Keqiang: A man who puts people first (10)

（Xinhua）  09:46, December 24, 2012

Apart from consolidating Henan's advantages as China's granary, Li facilitated the upgrade of local industries to extend the province's industrial chain. He also proposed the construction of an industrial corridor linking the provincial capital of Zhengzhou with the cities of Kaifeng and Luoyang, along which a number of pillar industries and conglomerates have been formed.

He urged local government officials to introduce capital, technology, experts, advanced management experience and mechanisms from eastern coastal provinces, which have been in the forefront of China's economic expansion, as well as strengthen cooperation with western provinces to seize bigger market share.

Using such tactics, Li figured out how to shift Henan from an agricultural province to an emerging industrial province.

Li also facilitated the province's urbanization by incubating city clusters in the Central Plains as new growth points.

He carried out an urbanization experiment through the development of the Zhengdong New District.

Instead of a sprawling area based on an old town relying on a single industry, the new district is an energy-efficient and livable place with finance, upscale commerce, logistics and tourism as its pillar industries.

For seven years, Henan maintained a growth rate 1.63 percentage points higher than the national average. The province climbed from 20th to 17th in national per capita GDP ranking, and its overall GDP ranked as the country's fifth largest and the first among western and central regions.

But more complicated challenges followed.