Premier Li Keqiang said that the key to boosting Central China’s rise amid the country’s economic transition is overcoming poverty and meeting people’s most urgent demands while also using industrial innovation to attract investment and provide jobs.

Premier Li spoke on May 9 as he concluded a two-day visit to Henan province, in which he inspected several households along the Yellow River floodplain during rainy weather and visited Foxconn’s production site in Zhengzhou.

Flooding has been a constant problem for local households. As dams were built higher on the Yellow River over the years, households in lower-lying areas became exposed to a greater risk of flooding. More than 2 million people live in such areas.

Among them are Zhang Guixiang, a 59-year-old farmer in the village of Lizhuang, in Xinxiang, and her husband, Yang Tianjie.

“Water comes down into the house whenever there is heavy rain, and this makes us quite concerned,” Zhang said, “I have to remove water constantly using basins.”

Yang, her 67-year-old husband, has been paralyzed in bed for years, leaving the responsibility for keeping them dry on Zhang’s shoulders alone.

Moving to an area where they no longer have to worry about flooding is their most pressing demand.

Premier Li visited Lizhuang on May 8, stopping at Zhang’s yard and learning about their concerns in detail.

The couple and their neighbors will soon be relocated to a new apartment not too far from their old houses. Work to relocate more than 800 households in the village is in full stride.

Premier Li attended a meeting on the next steps in relocating households in the floodplain at a relocation center right after his inspection.

The governors of Shandong and Henan, two provinces along the lower reaches of the Yellow River, attended the meeting.

While the floodplain was formed gradually, the relocation work must be considered urgent, especially since the country now finds itself in better economic conditions, Premier Li stressed at the meeting.

It was decided that favorable policies will be provided to build up basic infrastructure. Also, diverse financing sources will be used and land issues will be properly considered to help those in most urgent need in the next three years.

On May 9, Premier Li visited a production site in Zhengzhou of Foxconn Technology Group, the multinational electronics contract manufacturing company headquartered in Taiwan. He was accompanied by Terry Guo, head of Foxconn.

Before ending his two-day Henan visit at noon, the Premier also saw the company’s first fully automatic production area and spent time with workers on the assembly line as well as with employees at its education and development center.

While talking with workers who assemble precision instruments, Premier Li encouraged them to carry the spirit of craftsmanship and innovation into manufacturing.

The production site, located at the port operation area near Zhengzhou airport, benefits from an array of favorable policies from local government. Established in Zhengzhou in 2011, the company accounted for half of Henan’s exports from 2012 to 2016.