Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called for new methods and ideas to help rejuvenate the old industrial base in northeast China, which consists of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces.

Wen, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, chaired a meeting of the State Council on Tuesday addressing the problems of the old industrial base.

He urged the provinces to make efforts to change their mechanisms, further open to the outside world, optimize economic structure and modernize their economic growth models.

The provinces are also urged to enhance competitiveness to promote the coordinated and sustained development of the economy and explore new ways to invigorate the area with the rest of the country.

The participants of the meeting include Vice Premier Huang Ju, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier and member of the CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau Zeng Peiyan and State Councilor Hua Jianmin.

During the meeting, a work report on the progress achieved by the old industrial base in 2004 was delivered.

The report said the three provinces made outstanding achievements over the past year in implementing the related policies and in stepping up the reform of economic structures and opening to the outside world.

It expressed the hope that in 2005, the three provinces will focus efforts on developing agriculture to realize a coordinated development of the urban and rural areas, further optimizing industry structure and changing economic growth pattern.

It called for deepening reform and stepping up the reform of the share-holding system of the large state-owned enterprises and called on the old industrial base to improve investment environment to attract foreign investors and expand economic cooperation with neighboring countries in rejuvenating the region this year.

"Efforts should be made to protect the ecological environment to realize a coordinated development between nature and humans," it said.

The meeting, which was also attended by officials of the three provinces and concerned departments, concluded that it is "an urgent task" for local governments to "help laid-off workers get re-employed, further perfect the urban and rural social security system and improve the living standard of low-income citizens."