1st LD: Xi urges inclusive development on Ningxia tour

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.

On Monday morning, 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.

Xi then visited villages in Guyuan, 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 over 60,000.

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.

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