With the Chinese Spring Festival just around the corner, Premier Li Keqiang held a symposium with foreign experts who are working in China on Jan 20.

With the Chinese Spring Festival just around the corner, Premier Li Keqiang holds a symposium with foreign experts who are working in China on Jan 20. [Photo/China News Service]

On behalf of the Chinese government, Premier Li Keqiang offered his sincere wishes and greetings to several foreign experts, including Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and a professor at Tianjin University; Sune Roland Svanberg, academician of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering and a professor at South China Normal University; Olaf Kastner, president and chief executive officer of BMW Brilliance Automotive, and Erik Nilsson, senior journalist at China Daily.

They shared ideas and advice with the Premier on talent training, innovation and entrepreneurship, smart manufacturing and vocational education, as well as the international influence of Chinese stories.

Despite international and domestic downward pressure, the Chinese economy kept a stable growth rate of 6.7 percent, contributing more than 30 percent of world economic growth, according to Premier Li. At the same time, optimization of China’s economic structure is speeding up and the number of newly-added urban jobs surpassed 13 million four years in a row.

Foreign experts made contributions to those achievements, Premier Li said.

Huge potential remains as China has tremendous domestic demand and abundant human resources. China has the confidence and conditions to maintain the development momentum next year, he added.

China’s economic and social development is based on reform and opening-up and China will continue to further streamline administration and delegate power to lower-level governments, cultivate new driving forces, speed up integration among industries, upgrade traditional industries and boost new driving forces, according to Premier Li.

In addition, China will firmly stick to the principle of liberalization and facilitation of convenience, continue to relax market access, invite foreign investment and learn from advanced technologies and management methods. China will keep promoting a new round of high-level opening up and creating a transparent and fair market and legal environment for foreign investment, according to the Premier.

The Premier also emphasized that China welcomes talent from all over the world to live and work in China and efforts will be made to enhance support regarding residency, project application, resources for scientific studies and intellectual property rights.