BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged the country's individual business owners to take an active part in entrepreneurship and innovation and contribute to national economic and social development.

While meeting with representatives of China's individual business owners on Monday, Li urged them to seize business opportunities and gain support from government initiatives such as the Internet Plus strategy to create more jobs and push for further development by providing goods and services that meet public demand.

Individual business owners have a unique role in creating growth momentum and boosting industrial upgrades, Li said while encouraging them to improve their businesses and make them the backbones of the nation's economic development.

The non-public sectors of the economy, including individual businesses and private firms, are an important part of the socialist market economy, the premier said, adding that they create 40 percent of the country's jobs and play a significant part in stimulating growth and market vitality, creating wealth and meeting the diverse demand of Chinese consumers.

Li also urged local authorities to carry out government measures that encourage the development of the individual and private economy and create a fair and transparent business environment through further reforms, more effective supervision and improved services.

Local authorities should remove unreasonable restrictions on market access, reduce transaction costs generated by government procedures and help ease difficulties in financing for individual business owners and private firms, he said.