BEIJING -- The State Council on Friday issued a development plan on the Dabie Mountains in central China, aiming to end poverty in the old revolutionary base areas and improve the standard of living in the area.

The Dabie Mountain range forms the main watershed between the Huai and Yangtze rivers.

The plan will also benefit people living in neigboring regions,including south Henan, east Hubei and west Anhui provinces, which were the breeding ground of thousands of military generals and top-rank leaders of the Communist Party of China during the revolutionary times before 1949.

The region must make the best of its resources to adjust economic structure, develop new industries, and encourage local enterprises and agricultural parks to flourish, the plan outlined, adding that there needed to be an absolute ban on pollution and excessive exploitation.

Financial support and preferential policies will be initiated to promote the local economy.