Xi urges inclusive development on Ningxia tour

YINCHUAN, July 20 (Xinhua) -- No region or ethnic group should be left behind in China's drive to build a moderately prosperous society by 2020, President Xi Jinping said during a tour of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region that ended on Wednesday.

Xi spent three days in Ningxia, a less developed area with a high concentration of ethnic minorities in northwest China.

He called on local officials to implement the central authorities' policies and national development strategies to achieve economic prosperity and unity among ethnic groups.

Xi, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, went to Guyuan City and Yinchuan City in Ningxia, home to many Chinese Muslims and people from the Hui ethnic minority group.

Xi visited villages, enterprises, a mosque, and a revolutionary education base, studying the implementation of economic and social development and poverty relief work.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION

During his trip, Xi visited villages in Guyuan City, checking poverty relief work there, talking with villagers about their livelihood, and urging Party members to take the lead to alleviate poverty among villagers.

Poverty relief is a priority for China in the next few years. As the country aims to build a "moderately prosperous society in an all-round way" by 2020, over 55 million people should be lifted out of poverty.

Xi attaches great importance to poverty relief. For the fourth year in a row, Xi Jinping's new year inspection tours have taken him to the frontlines of China's war against poverty.

During the 2016 Spring Festival, he visited Jiangxi Province. Xi visited Gansu Province and Beijing in 2013, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 2014 and northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 2015.

In Ningxia, he also visited Yuanlong Migrant Village in Minning Township, Yongning County, Yinchuan City. The village was built 20 years ago with Xi's suggestion when he worked in Fujian Province. Its population has since expanded from 8,000 people to over60,000.

After visiting the village and villagers' houses, Xi called for promoting poverty relief practices among them.

Xi inspected an incubator park established with cooperation between Ningxia and Zhejiang Province, encouraging more enterprises to join poverty relief efforts in western China.

RELIGIOUS HARMONY

During his tour, Xi visited Xincheng Mosque in Yinchuan. Xi has called for efforts to promote religious and social harmony while guarding against illegal infiltration via religious means.

"No matter whether local or imported, our country's religions have been deeply imprinted into the Chinese civilization, with a history of more than 5,000 years, and have been deeply integrated into our social life," Xi said.

The president called on authorities to stick to the CPC's religious policies, carry out religion-related work in a law-based manner, and guide religions to adapt better to socialist society.

More efforts should be made to "direct religious figures and believers to respect and abide by the law, resolutely guard against illegal infiltration via religious means, and promote religious and social harmony," he said.

Education on national unity and progress should be enhanced to strengthen the idea that the Han ethnic group and various ethnic minority groups are inseparable from one another, Xi said.

Economic and social development should be accelerated in regions mainly inhabited by ethnic minority groups so as to promote unity and cohesion, the president added.

Xi also called on religious circles to interpret Islamic doctrine well, publicize latest achievements in interpretation, foster religious personnel, especially among the middle-aged and the young, and better serve and guide believers.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

The Chinese president underscored the implementation of the nation's new development concepts of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared growth, while urging improved environmental protection during his trip.

Xi noted that Ningxia is an important ecological security barrier in northwestern China, and said construction of "green barriers" should be strengthened.

Protection of water resources should be reinforced, especially at headstreams and significant lakes and wetlands, to prevent water pollution, he said.

The president also called for the protection of the Yellow River, saying pollution of the river, known as China's "Mother River," must be eliminated.

China's economy made progress while remaining stable in general terms in the first half of the year, Xi said.

The country should work to tackle deep-rooted problems that constrain its economic growth, and seek solid economic foundations and longer-term benefits in order to improve the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of its economy, said Xi.

He said the new development concepts -- proposed in the country's roadmap for social and economic development for 2016-2020-- shall be integrated throughout the entire process of China's social and economic development and its efforts to build a"moderately prosperous society" in an all-round way.

In China's supply-side structural reform, less developed regions should seek new achievements just as developed regions do, Xi said.

Authorities should properly handle relations between supply and demand and between the government and the market, and make sure that the market is allowed to play a decisive role in allocating resources while the government plays a better role.

Less developed regions could benefit from the innovation-driven development strategy and seek to improve their strength in scientific innovation through interaction with, or help from, China's eastern and more developed areas, Xi said.

During his tour in Ningxia, Xi arrived in Jiangtaipu in Xiji County, Guyuan City, to visit the memorial site commemorating the joining together of forces in the Long March. He laid a wreath at the monument, and called for carrying forward the spirit of old revolutionaries.

In the Ningdong energy-chemical industry base, Xi inspected the world's biggest coal-to-oil project.