Senior Chinese leader Zhou Yongkang on Friday urged making all-out efforts to achieve faster development and maintain social stability in the country's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in the year 2012.

Zhou, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remark at a conference held in Beijing to map out work plans for the region in 2012.

At the conference, reports were made reviewing the region's development in 2011, and plans have also been worked out to propel leap-frog development and long-term stability in the region.

Many projects in the energy, transportation, water-conservation and other economic sectors will be launched in Xinjiang to translate the region's abundance of resources into industrial and economic advantages, Zhou said.

Zhou urged the construction of two economic development zones, Kashgar and Horgos, so as to inject vitality into the entire region.

Other work plans include improving local people's housing conditions, creating jobs, particularly for college graduates, carrying out bilingual education in both Mandarin and ethnic minority languages, empowering community-level Party committees, and cracking down on illegal religious activities, among other things.