BEIJING, Sept. 29  -- Chinese leadership called for enhanced efforts to ensure leapfrog development in the country's ethnic regions by mixing policy incentives and utilizing regions' natural strengths.

In a statement issued after a two-day central work conference on ethnic affairs, Chinese leaders pointed out differentiated regional policies should be applied to China's border areas, impoverished regions and ecological preservation areas to assist in development.

The conference was attended by President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other leaders including Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan and Wang Qishan.

China's transfer payment and partner assistance programs should be further streamlined and central authorities, developed regions and ethnic regions must all pitch in actively to stimulate growth.

China boasts 56 ethnic groups while ethnic autonomous areas account for 64 percent of the country's total land territory.

"Ethnic minorities and ethnic regions have witnessed significant progress since the founding of the New China, but certain ethnic regions still face considerable problems, such as poverty, and are still leagues away from the common goal of the comprehensive construction of a well-off society," the statement said.

It said efforts must focus on upgrading infrastructure and opening-up in border areas, promoting ethnic culture, safeguarding fairness and justice, protecting the environment, alleviating poverty, and on improving people's livelihood.

Calling the central authorities' support for accelerated economic and social development in ethnic regions a fundamental policy, the statement urged ethnic regions to deepen reform and opening-up, give renewed vitality to the market and inspire innovation.

Ethnic regions should bring their distinctive advantages into full play so as to explore their development potentials and improve their capability to achieve independent growth, it said.

The leaders stressed that infrastructure development in ethnic regions should serve their growth potential and focus on road construction and access to clean water.

Authorities must take ethnic regions as the main battleground for poverty relief, and should find new ways to improve efficiency in poverty alleviation.

The statement called for urbanization in ethnic regions while taking into account the country's overall economic, transport and agricultural planning, adding that authorities should plan and build villages and townships with distinctive ethnic characteristics.

Environmental protection should be given priority in ethnic regions, with both central and local authorities increasing their input and fully implementing the ecological compensation mechanism, it said.

According to the statement, ethnic regions should develop industries with local advantages, notably tourism, and boost "self-development capacity."

"Develop and utilize resources well, push forward the improvement of industrial structures, accelerate the development of the service industry, and gradually develop tourism into a pillar industry for ethnic regions," it said.

As the meeting was told, considering the unique characteristics of ethnic regions, special support should be offered to them concerning use of land, financial services and the construction of capital markets.

"The momentum and vigor of ethnic regions' accelerated development ultimately lies in reform," the statement said, stressing the reform of investment systems, closer ties with neighboring regions and a connection with coastal regions via a market mechanism.

The statement envisioned a scenario of joint development where various regions reciprocate and cooperate with each other.

It also underlined the key role of basic public services in improving people's livelihoods, noting that "the fundamental goal of developing economy is to let people of various ethnic groups live better lives."

According to the statement, educational investment should favor ethnic and border regions to build standard primary and middle schools, realize free vocational education in high schools and achieve quality higher education as well as bilingual education that encompasses mandarin and various local ethnic languages.

Ethnic regions should have improved medical services and competent medical workers at the grassroots levels.

A pairing system that enables developed regions to help ethnic areas should be strengthened, with a special focus on improving local people's livelihoods at the grassroots levels, it added.