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Hu urges economic growth, livelihood improvement amid crisis

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-24 11:48

Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for redoubled efforts at local levels to promote economic growth and improve living standards and social stability.

Hu made the remarks while visiting Shandong Province, eastern China, Tuesday and Wednesday, where he inspected businesses, ports and communities in the cities of Jinan and Qingdao, and told local governments to rise to the challenge and tap their potential.

"Those who can make it through the crisis can expect more future development," Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said while visiting Shengmei'er Light Industry Products Company, an export-oriented garment producer in Qingdao.

He said the government had adopted a series of policies to beef up business confidence.

"So long as we make concerted efforts, we can overcome the most daunting difficulties."

At the Jinan Commercial Vehicle Co, subsidiary to the China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Co, Hu visited the production line and sat in a newly-developed truck to test it.

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When told the company's sales and profits registered growth during the first quarter, Hu was very happy and urged the company to grasp the opportunity of auto industry restructuring and lift its competitiveness for the development of the auto industry and the national economy.

He also visited the Qingdao port and the offshore Oil Engineering Co, encouraging the workers to work hard for their enterprises' greater development.

The president's trip also highlighted his concerns for people's livelihood, like employment and housing.

At the Jinan branch of the Beijing Eastdawn Information Technology Company, Hu was told the company had received 180 local college graduates as trainees and planned to take up to 500 more in the near future.

Hu praised and encouraged the company move, saying although the government had taken measures, efforts by the whole society were needed if the graduates' employment problem was to be solved .

He then visited a shanty town renovation project in Jinan. Where once stood run-down residential houses, new buildings were being constructed.

He dropped in to visit a newly-finished apartment, checked the rooms and tap water and talked with the residents. He urged local officials to make good use of the government policy, accelerate the construction of government-subsidized projects, and help the low-income residents solve their housing problems.

Hu also visited residential communities in Jinan, where he engaged with local people, talked and played games with them.

In his meeting with provincial officials, the president said the country was riding on a pivotal period of coping with the global financial crisis and maintaining the steady and relatively fast development of its economy.

Local officials must beef up their confidence, rise to the challenge and give all they could to promote growth, improve people's living standards and ensure social stability, he urged.