FUZHOU, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) leader Zhou Yongkang, while on an inspection tour, has urged officials in the coastal province of Fujian in southeast China to pursue leapfrog economic development.

Fujian should make full use of the opportunity for development and put in place the next five-year development plan based upon its real conditions to significantly improve the people's standards of living, said Zhou, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

He further said the province should increase its economic and cultural exchanges with Taiwan.

Zhou also told officials to divert more government spending and public services to impoverished areas and low-income residents to boost the development of the old revolutionary base areas, as well as the western and northern areas in Fujian.