The Jiangsu provincial government will spare no effort to provide better lives for its residents, Governor Luo Zhijun said yesterday.

He was speaking at the first session of the 11th provincial people's congress, at which he was elected governor.

To achieve the five-year goal of increasing prosperity in the region, Luo said, "priority will be given to industrial restructuring, technological innovation and the development of both urban and rural areas".

The province has already seen swift development of its service and IT industries over the past five years, Luo said.

The service sector accounts for almost 38 percent of the province's GDP and over the past five years, the IT industry has yielded revenues of 83.2 billion yuan ($11.6 billion).

"We will try to narrow the differences in living standards between urban and rural residents by giving more support to the construction of rural infrastructure and improving medical facilities," he said.

Also yesterday, Wang Sanyun was elected governor of Anhui province at the first session of the 11th provincial people's congress. He previously held government and Party posts in Guizhou, Sichuan and Fujian.

He said new policies will be implemented to speed up the development of rural areas to provide a better standard of living for peasants.

(China Daily February 1, 2008)