Premier: Officials should stay clean and disciplined

Premier Li Keqiang has urged government officials to always keep the public interest in mind, be insightful and help solve difficulties facing the people with concrete actions.

He made the remarks at a State Council meeting on clean governance on Monday, saying it is the duty of government authorities to exercise their rights with integrity as these rights are bestowed by the people.

Government officials at all levels should set a good example for others, maintain rigorous discipline and behave without corruption, Li said.

To deliver satisfactory service to the people, officials must always be clean, honest and self-disciplined, stick to principles and be practical and realistic, he said, adding that corruption will by no means be tolerated and must be severely punished.

The premier said promoting social and economic development is the primary duty for governments at all levels and also an inevitable requirement for building a clean government.

In recent years, efforts have been made to fight corruption at its source, thus providing a strong guarantee for economic and social development, Li said.

He urged that high attention be given to the impact on the Chinese economy of unexpected changes of the situation both at home and abroad, saying that many of the existing policies and measures must be put into place in the first half of this year.

The fundamentals of the economy must be sustained by ensuring stability in employment, commodity prices and supplies, Li said.

The government must be responsible for securing food and energy security and for stabilizing the industrial and supply chains, he added.

The premier stressed that government officials must be diligent and pragmatic when fulfilling their tasks and formalism and bureaucratism must be corrected. Officials must be down to earth and should not implement policies in a simple and inflexible way, he said.