Premier Li Keqiang underscored the importance of greater strides in reform and opening-up and more steps to improve the business environment in rejuvenating the country's northeastern rust belt on Monday.

Li said during an inspection trip to Dalian, Liaoning province, that the Northeast must enhance its competitiveness in growth through furthering reform to cut red tape, boost oversight of compliance and improve government services.

It is also a crucial step to enable the market to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources and to help the government play a better role in the process, he said.

Li urged authorities in Liaoning province, a coastal region with good harbors, to deepen cooperation with other provincial areas and countries and to gain the upper hand in international competition so that it can lead the rejuvenation in the northeastern region.

He reaffirmed the country's equal treatment of State-owned enterprises and private businesses as he visited a petrochemical refinery project in which Hengli Group, one of the world's biggest weaving enterprises, has an investment.

The country will support the growth of private businesses of various sizes and encourage their integrated development, he said.

He also appealed to researchers at the Collaborative Innovation Center of Major Machine Manufacturing in Liaoning to focus on market demand, improve the quality of products and contribute to the nation's efforts to move its equipment manufacturing sector to the medium-high end of the global value chain.

Researchers are some of the primary movers in innovation, and more steps must be taken to increase the pay for researchers as a proportion of total spending on research, especially for fundamental research, he said.

The premier also learned about the employment of college graduates at Dalian University of Technology, and encouraged students to excel in the job market and contribute to national development.

China will see a historic high of 8.3 million college graduates this year, and Li said in a news conference in March that the country will see to it that no families face the plight of all its members being jobless.

College education must be better integrated with vocational education so that it trains not only more scientists but also more engineers and workers dedicated to craftsmanship, he said.