Premier Wen Jiabao showed his extensive care for local people's livelihood, education, medical service and the development of energy sources during his recent inspection tour to the country's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Wen made his journey to Xinjiang from last Thursday to Sunday. He visited villages, schools, enterprises, hospitals and the Xinjiang production and construction corps of the army in a number of prefectures and cities including Kax, IIi, Karamay and Shihezi.

During the inspection, Wen chatted amiably with local villagers, seeking detailed answers to the local government's assistance to their house building, their children's schooling expenses and their participation in the new rural cooperative medical care system.

He promised to help needy villagers build anti-seismic houses, construct a flood control project and bring more bilingual teachers who can speak both mandarin and Uygur language to local schools.

He urged local governments and companies to better develop and utilize rich petroleum, natural gas and coal sources to speed up the region's development.

The premier also encouraged local hospitals to offer more low-priced medicines and medical services to help alleviate the financial burden of poor local residents.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2007)