Vice- Premier Visit Snowstorm-Hit Inner Mongolia

Vice-Premier Makes Inspection Tour in Blizzard-Stricken Inner Mongolia

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On behalf of President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice-premier Wen Jiabao braved a temperature far below zero to inspect the blizzard-hit areas in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from January 19-20.

During his inspection tour, Wen visited local herdsmen's families in the central-eastern part of the region which has been attacked by six disastrous snowstorms this winter.

Wen urged the local people to be confident and to display their hard-working spirit to get over the calamities.

Local government must give top priority to resolving the problems of food and clothes for the victims, he said. The central and local governments have decided to allocate more fund, grain and forage to help with the disaster relief.

Wen also discuss with local officials on ways to mobilize local people to restore production, ensure the transporting of relief goods, protect animals, and prepare for epidemics-control when it turns warm.