Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the importance of promoting domestic consumption and independent research and development during a three-day inspection tour of the central Hunan Province, which ended Sunday.

Wen said the key to a sound economic future lay in continuing to "unswervingly" implement the government's policies to deal with the international economic downturn.

Companies should increase investment in research and development and better utilize science and technologies to "foster new economic growth points," he said.

Local governments, meanwhile, should develop energy-efficient and environment-friendly industries and put priority on a recycling and green economy, he said.

During his trip in Hunan, Wen visited companies, Hunan University, job markets and farmlands.

He said the enhanced economic power of central and western regions, whose economies profited from central government support policies, added vigor to the country's economic development and should continue to be supported.

The central region, a link between the east and the west, should speed up industrial restructuring with a focus on local characteristics and advantages while tapping emerging industries, such as IT and bioengineering, said Wen.

He also called for more attention to education and talent in China's future reform and opening, and the building of a social welfare system that values the improvement of living standards.

Visiting farms, Wen said wheat production this summer was sure to grow over last year and that the country should focus on a more balanced economic development between urban and rural areas.

"Stable agricultural output makes a stable economy and stable lives for the people," Wen said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2009)