President Xi Jinping on Friday called on east China's Anhui Province to deepen reform in order to break through bottlenecks in its development at the end of a four-day inspection tour. 

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a meeting with Party and government officials of Anhui in the provincial capital of Hefei – the last stop of his tour following Fuyang and Ma'anshan. 

He stressed upholding reform and opening-up as well as high-quality development while making greater progress in accelerating the building of a better Anhui. 

Efforts should also be made to achieve greater success in the establishment of a new development pattern that takes the domestic market as the mainstay and allows the domestic and foreign markets to boost each other, he said. 

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Xi called for efforts to improve the real economy. "On the one hand, efforts should be made to transform and upgrade traditional industries," he said. "On the other hand, efforts should be made to develop and strengthen strategic emerging industries." 

According to China's development plans, strategic emerging industries refer to sectors with high growth potential and relying on high-end technology, including information technology, bio-industry, green and low-carbon industry, high-end manufacturing, and digital and creative industry.  

During the meeting, Xi urged Anhui to strive for breakthroughs in "key and core technologies" and rely on reform to strengthen driving forces for its development.

Chinese authorities have vowed to eradicate absolute poverty throughout the country by the end of this year. Xi said Anhui should synergize poverty alleviation and rural vitalization and help poor areas thrive.

The province should also improve the system of prevention, control and treatment of major epidemics as well as the public health emergency management system, he told the officials.

A significant part of Xi's tour in Anhui featured visits to flood-stricken areas, as the province and many other regions in China fight against the worst floods in decades.

He chose the floodgate of the Wangjiaba Dam on the Huaihe River in Fuyang as his first stop during the tour on Tuesday. Then he walked into the fields and talked with local residents living on "zhuangtai," a residential structure on raised ground with higher elevation that functions as a safe haven from river floods.

On Wednesday, Xi visited families of those who died fighting floods in the county of Feidong. "Every time a calamity occurs, heroes charge forward. This embodies the great spirit of the Chinese nation," he said. 

On Thursday, he instructed the armed forces to make unremitting efforts to complete the follow-up tasks of flood control and disaster relief. 

At Friday's meeting with Anhui's senior officials, Xi called for efforts in flood control and post-disaster reconstruction and urged authorities of the province to support disaster-hit enterprises to resume work and production. 

Prior to the Anhui tour, Xi already visited Yunnan Province, Beijing Municipality, Hubei Province, Zhejiang Province, Shaanxi Province, Shanxi Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Jilin Province this year. 

(With input from Xinhua)