Photo taken on Aug. 20, 2020 shows floodwater passing through the downtown area of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Yangtze River's water level in Chongqing Municipality exceeded historical high earlier Thursday morning, posing unprecedented threat to the metropolis in southwest China. At around 8 a.m. Thursday, the water level at the Cuntan hydrologic station in Chongqing reached 191.55 meters, 0.14 meters higher than the record in 1981, and was rising. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for more efforts to ensure that hundreds of millions of market participants in the country can achieve the task of creating more than 9 million new jobs in urban areas and that the country's economy can achieve positive growth in 2020, stressing the need to properly handle development uncertainties.

He made the remarks during a recent inspection tour of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On Thursday, he inspected the flood-hit ancient town of Ciqikou in Chongqing and asked shop owners at the tourist site about their losses as well as the extent of the recovery of consumption and tourism.

Li spoke of the need to give better play to favorable national policies to help enterprises and store owners get through the difficult period and bring the services sector such as tourism back to normalcy so as to release huge consumption potential.

During the tour, Li also inspected Changan Automobile Co and Internet of Things firm BOE Technology Group on Friday. The Premier said the western regions have great potential and capabilities, and should not only be active in taking over industries transferred from the east, but also be brave enough to shift to the middle- and high-end of the value chain.

While inspecting the enterprises, Li said that China's recent macro-economic performance shows that the country's policies - including ensuring stability in employment, basic living needs and financial operations - have yielded positive results.