Reform and opening-up is the key to the revitalization of China's northeastern region, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said during his visit to Dalian City of Liaoning Province on Monday.

With favorable geographical conditions, the Liaoning port needs to be fully open to the overseas and enhance cooperation at home and abroad, better driving the development of northeast China, Li stressed when visiting Liaoning Port Group.

He urged all deputies to deeply implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, enable the market to play the decisive role in resource allocation, give better play to the role of the government, and further improve local business environment.

Li was so pleased that China's Hengli Petrochemical Group, a major chemical project owned by the private sector, said policies to reduce taxes and fees are in place, noting not only SMEs but also major private companies should be supported and there should be no exception between SOEs and private ones.

When visiting the collaborative innovation center of national major equipment manufacturing, the premier emphasized the talent as the most active factor in innovation and encouraged them to be market-oriented and increase production levels.

To see more artisans and engineers as scientists, Li expected education in universities to be more complementary with job training and vocational education, during the talk with graduates in Dalian University of Technology (DUT).

Li fully affirmed the province's efforts on stabilizing the economy as well as improving people's livelihood, hoping that it can play a greater role in revitalizing northeast China by furthering reform and opening-up.

The 2019 Summer Davos forum is held from July 1-3 in Dalian.