Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday that innovation-driven development is the key to China's long-term economic resilience and steady growth.
He attributed China's steady and healthy economic growth to a stable environment and innovation-driven development while addressing the opening plenary of the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos, in northeast China's coastal city of Dalian.
The country's innovation is earned through years of strengthening its own capabilities and relentless hard work, driven by widespread application across industries, and cultivated through a robust ecosystem, he said.
The Chinese economy has demonstrated stability, innovation, vitality and integration with the rest of the world at the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), he said.
The Chinese economy has maintained "strong resilience and positive momentum" as it kicks off the new five-year plan period, he noted, adding that its stability has provided the much-needed certainty and served as an important "safe harbor" in an increasingly uncertain world.
Regarding "China Opportunity 2.0," Li noted that for enterprises worldwide, it represents comprehensive innovation-driven empowerment and high-return investment prospects, while for global development, it means broader access to advanced technologies and more widely shared development benefits.
Innovation-driven cooperation is an inevitable choice to overcome the global growth dilemma, he said, calling for deeper connectivity and collaboration and for pooling innovation strengths more widely.
Noting that technological progress should serve the common good and advance joint governance more effectively, Li said China will continue to participate in global governance on artificial intelligence (AI) and other domains in a responsible and constructive manner.
China will work with related parties to strengthen institutional frameworks and rules, enhance regulatory effectiveness, and forcefully defuse potential risks, he said.
Describing enterprises as the main force of innovation, he sincerely welcomed enterprises from all countries to invest and start businesses in China, and to gain new opportunities from the country's development.
Prime Minister of Bangladesh Tarique Rahman, Prime Minister of Guinea Amadou Oury Bah, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Kim Min-seok, Prime Minister of Mongolia Nyam-Osor Uchral, and Prime Minister of Montenegro Milojko Spajic, as well as around 1,800 representatives from across the world, attended the opening plenary.
Under the theme "Innovating at Scale", the event is scheduled for June 23 to 25 in Dalian, northeastern China’s Liaoning Province.
Innovation key to China's long-term economic resilience, steady growth: premier
