URUMQI, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Tuesday called for solid efforts to ensure timely progress in the advancement of three major landmark projects for the nation's Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program.

He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while attending a meeting held in the Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, aimed at promoting work progress.

The vice premier called for sound efforts to advance the three landmark projects to ensure that over 70 percent of work tasks for the sixth phase of the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program are completed by 2027, and all work tasks for this phase are fulfilled by 2030.

While in Bayingolin on Monday, He also visited an apocynum planting demonstration area and a desertification control research base.

China is among the countries with the most severe desertification globally. Its desertified areas are mainly located in northwest, north and northeast China, which together are dubbed the "three-north."

The country in 1978 initiated its landmark ecological project, the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, which has become the world's largest afforestation endeavor. Scheduled to be completed by 2050, the program has the aim of rehabilitating and greening desert-prone lands and desertified areas in the "three-north." ■