NANJING -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang has urged efforts to promote innovation and expand effective demand to propel sustained improvement in the economy.

Li made the remarks during an inspection tour from Monday to Wednesday in East China's Jiangsu province. During the tour, he underlined efforts to foster a strong atmosphere for starting businesses and making achievements, and to stimulate vitality for high-quality development in the process of deepening reform and opening up.

While inspecting a local machinery company, Li called for actively applying technologies such as artificial intelligence and clean energy to promote the upgrade of the construction machinery industry in line with the global trend.

Efforts should focus on aligning innovation with industry needs, advancing major original breakthroughs and technological innovations, and accelerating both industrialization and market applications, Li said.

He also stressed the need to carry out in-depth basic research, promote cross-disciplinary integration and innovation, and strengthen cooperation to secure the leading position in future sci-tech and industrial development.

At a local home appliance company, Li learned about the effects of the country's consumer goods trade-in program, and urged the company to make good use of relevant policies to unleash consumption potential.

Noting that the country's market is vast and continuously growing, Li said that China welcomes enterprises from all countries to invest and start businesses here.

"We will further increase policy support and service guarantees to create a favorable environment for foreign-funded enterprises to develop and thrive in China," he said.

During the tour, Li also underlined efforts to better leverage the role of the China-Europe Railway Express and cross-border e-commerce to enhance economic and trade exchanges between China and Central Asia, expand their cooperation areas, and promote mutual benefit in the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road.

Jiangsu has a solid economic foundation, and also has higher development requirements, Li said, urging the province to better leverage its economic strength to make more contributions to the overall development of the country.