China's growth powers world economy: Vice-Premier

BEIJING- The development of China will provide more opportunities and stronger impetus for the world economy, Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli told a forum here on Sunday.

Zhang made the remarks at the China Development Forum, which serves as a significant platform for business and academic leaders to interact with China's top decision makers and economic planners.

This year's forum is scheduled from Saturday to Monday with the theme of "deepening China's reform and opening up for building a better-off society."

The country aims to fulfill the building of a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

After realizing this target, the nation will witness a significant boost in its overall strength, a much larger market scale and improvement of people's livelihood, Zhang said.

"China will then provide more opportunities, greater impetus and make new contributions to global economic growth," he said.

In 2012, the country attracted a total of $111.72 billion in foreign direct investment. Total trade volume reached $3.87 trillion, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier.

Zhang said China will continue its efforts to build a market environment featuring equitable competition to enhance the vitality of growth.

The country will unswervingly welcome and encourage multinational companies to invest in China and protect the legitimate interests of investors, Zhang said.

"China will provide an opportunity for foreign enterprises to compete in an equitable environment and share the benefits stemming from China's growth," according to Zhang.

He emphasized that the policy of reform and opening up is the only way for developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, as it has been proved by profound achievements in the past decades.

"China's practices have demonstrated that reform and opening up is the fundamental impetus for the country's social and economic development," ?Zhang said.

In an era of closer ties and more intertwined relations between China and the rest of the world, China should insist on opening up to the outside world with greater scope and more fields, and at higher levels than before, he said.

China remains the world's top destination for foreign investments as the country still holds many competitive edges, according to a research report jointly released Sunday by China Development Research Foundation and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Steadily expanding domestic market, improving competition environment, technology talents, government's stimulus measures, cheap labor, and favorable tax policies are among the major attractions for foreign investments, the report said.

Citing results from a survey of 227 chief executive officers from multi-national companies, the report said 70 percent of those who had businesses in China plan to increase their investments in the coming five years.

The country will further improve its open economic mechanism featuring mutual benefits, multi-level balances, security and efficiency to add positive energy for world economic growth, Zhang said.

The China Development Forum was initiated in 2000 by the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's Cabinet.