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BEIJING, May 23-- China will increase investment in education in poverty-stricken areas and on weak links in the sector, take measures to boost its dairy industry, and give priority to developing service trade, according to a State Council statement. The central government will add 13 billion yuan (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) of funding to support compulsory and vocational education in central and western regions, poverty-stricken and rural areas, according to the statement released after a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday. The country will strengthen finance, insurance and land support for the dairy industry. The State Council requires 17 regions, including Beijing, to deepen the pilot program from July 1 this year to June 30, 2020 to promote innovative development of service trade. The program was first rolled out by the State Council in 2016. A series of opening-up measures will be piloted in the above places covering telecommunications, tourism, engineering consulting, finance and legal services. Access mechanisms for trade in services on cross-border delivery and overseas consumption will be explored and refined. Restrictions will be gradually lifted or eased, and customs clearance and visa arrangements will be streamlined for freer flow of goods and people. In this year's Government Work Report, the premier said that mechanisms for developing trade in services will be reformed. | 
