Northeast China's Jilin launched a plan to accelerate the development of sports in the province at a news conference held on June 10, according to local reports.

Officials from the provincial sports bureau told the conference that in recent years, Jilin had seen a rapid development in sports, as the national fitness program enjoyed popularity among Jilin people, and the sports sector saw continuous development and achieved remarkable progress.

However there remained insufficient development of some areas of sports in the province and this meant people's needs were not being fully met.

Officials said the new plan has taken onboard advice from 34 provincial government departments and the sports departments of 13 cities (prefectures) in the province. The aim is to accelerate the high-quality development of sports and give full play to sports in promoting the revitalization of the province.

The sports plan sets out to create a strong sports province in four stages, map out major tasks that need to be fulfilled and provide policy guarantees.

Officials said it is a people-centered, goal-oriented, problem-oriented and practice-oriented action plan for the province's sports development.