Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday called for greater efforts to promote consumption, expand domestic demand and boost the domestic economy, to further unleash the vitality and potential of China's enormous market.
Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the statement during an inspection tour in Beijing.
During the inspection at a local exhibition promoting domestic sales of foreign trade firms at a downtown mall, Li pointed out that the current external environment has undergone profound changes, adversely impacting China's foreign trade. He called for proactive actions of all to overcome difficulties, actively explore diversified markets, innovate trade channels and methods, and strive to ensure stable performance of foreign trade.
He urged efforts to effectively utilize existing policies to promote domestic sales of foreign trade goods, develop trade brands of foreign trade enterprises, establish a mechanism that allows direct reach of policies to enterprises, and steadily promote integrated development of domestic and foreign trade.
The premier stressed further actions to boost consumption, calling for increased efforts in stabilizing employment, promoting income growth, and strengthening guarantees, to further enhance the people's spending power and consumption willingness, and nurture a growing market for domestic demand.
Li advocated promotion of healthy competition, encouraging enterprises to develop differentiated advantages, enhance their competitiveness through continuous innovation in products and services, and create new demand through high-quality supply.
While visiting a real estate project site, the premier learned about local efforts to convert inventory housing into talent apartments. Li said that the purchase of existing commercial housing for use as affordable housing is a crucial step in stabilizing the real estate market and improving people's livelihoods, urging efforts to support such initiatives.
It is essential to implement all relevant policies, grant urban governments greater power to determine the types of entities that can make purchases, the prices of such properties, and the purposes for which they will be used, and introduce new support measures on the basis of research in a timely manner, Li said.
The premier urged in-depth promotion of urban renewal, calling for intensified efforts to redevelop old villages surrounded by urban areas and renovate old and dilapidated houses, make a good use of existing resources and optimize incremental resources.
It is essential to focus on the concerns of new urban residents and those with housing difficulties, with adjustment and improvement of the relevant policies to support residents in buying their first home or improving their housing situation, said the premier.
Currently and in the foreseeable future, there is still substantial development space in China's real estate market, he said, noting that the housing market potential should be further unleashed to actively promote the construction of quality homes, accelerate the formation of a new model for real estate development, and facilitate steady and healthy development of the real estate market.
Chinese premier urges efforts to boost consumption
The continuing conflict between Israel and Lebanon has not only displaced people from their homes, but also pushed farmers off the land they depend on in the south of the country, as an estimated 80 percent have stopped working due to damaged fields, unsafe roads, and fears of contamination.
Despite Israel and Lebanon agreeing last Thursday to a three-week extension of an original 10-day ceasefire deal which began between in mid-April, deadly Israeli strikes have continued to hit southern parts of Lebanon, resulting in numerous deaths and widespread damage.
Controversy has also arisen over the Israeli military's efforts to extend the territories it occupies in southern Lebanon as part of what it terms as a "security buffer zone" along the border.
Lebanese residents have been warned against returning to their homes within this area, with Israel announcing that anyone who approaches this so-called "Yellow Line" will be considered a threat.
However, in spite of these difficulties, some farmers in the southern city of Tyre are trying to keep their connection to the soil alive.
A group of women have been bravely planting on borrowed land, because their own is now too dangerous to reach. Here, there are growing herbs such as basil, sage, rosemary, mint and thyme in neat rows.
For displaced local farmer Zainab, who hails from the border town of Naqoura, this field is not home, but it is where she has found a way to keep going amid times of crisis.
"I was displaced from my own land. I'm a farmer. I used to farm my land in Naqoura, so I started farming here, too. As you know, most of us from the south are farmers. Agriculture is the main thing we do," she said.
Across southern Lebanon, roughly 80 percent of local farmers have stopped working either because they are unable to reach their land or they fear it is no longer safe.
More than 17,000 farmers have been affected, with their fields damaged by shelling, fires, bulldozing, and contamination.
Officials have condemned the Israeli attacks on the region which have put the livelihood of ordinary people at risk and have cost some innocent civilian their lives.
"Under the recent acts of aggression, there was difficulty for the farmers to get to their lands. Most of the times they would even be targeted. I know some farms owners who hired workers to harvest the crops -- as a result, unfortunately, some of them were killed," said Alwan Charafeddine, the Deputy Mayor of Tyre City.
Agriculture is a key part of the Lebanese economy, but also the backbone of daily life in the south of the country. The region produces staples like olives, citrus, tobacco and vegetables, and when farmers are forced off their land, the consequences are felt across the country.
"I left the land. I left the crops I had planted, which, according to the season, were cabbage, cauliflower, fava beans and peas. More than leaving the land, I left my whole life behind, and now I'm here," said Zainab.
"After the targeting of the bridge that connected Tyre with Sidon, it became hard to get many of the supplies we used to get through there, which has caused the prices of agricultural products to rise," said the deputy mayor.
But amid these hard times, a glimmer of hope remains. On land belonging to local authorities, the Seeds of Tyre project is giving displaced women work, a source of income, and an outlet which allows them to pass on their skills.
Using donated seeds of aromatic herbs, they are producing basil and rose water and orange blossom, generating a small economy which is taking root in the middle of a much larger loss.
For Zainab, working the soil here offers some stability at a time of conflict, with this temporary field helping farmers tick over as they wait for safe access to their own land.
Farmers turn to temporary fields as swathes of land destroyed in southern Lebanon
