Xi: China confident of sustainable economic growth

President Xi Jinping meets with foreign members of the 21st Century Council in Beijing on Nov 2, 2013.[Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - President Xi Jinping on Saturday said China is confident of a sustainable and healthy economic growth and it will further the reform and opening up drive.

Xi made the remarks as he met with a group of foreign members of the 21st Century Council in Beijing, where the global think-tank is holding a conference from Friday to Sunday focusing on the world's second largest economy.

China is working to transform the mode of development and readjust its economic structure, Xi said, highlighting the country's push for new-type industrialization, urbanization, the application of information technology and agricultural modernization.

He noted that China's economy is growing steadily, with its gross domestic output (GDP) expanding by 7.6 percent in the first six months and by 7.8 percent in the third quarter.

"There are sufficient factors supporting China's economic development," said the president. "We are confident that the Chinese economy will keep growing in a sustained and healthy way."

Xi said that China will firmly continue pushing ahead with the drive of reform and opening up.

"The more China is developed, the more the country will open up," he said, adding that it is impossible for China to "shut the door already opened up."

Xi told the members of the think tank that a blueprint of comprehensive reform will be put forward at the forthcoming Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. Xi is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi said the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and the Chinese people's pursuit for a good life are interrelated with all other nations' pursuit for peace and development.

China will stick to the path of peaceful development and will never seek hegemony, Xi said.

"With the further development of China, we will shoulder more international obligations and play a more proactive role in international affairs as well as the reform of the international system," said the Chinese president.

The 21st Century Council's foreign members include the Council Chairman and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, Chairman of Berggruen Institute on Governance Nicolas Berggruen, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating and Singaporean scholar Kishore Mahbubani.

During the discussion, they expressed the belief that the Chinese economy will keep growing, which is conducive to the world.

The 21st Century Council is a non-governmental forum composed of former heads of state, top global intellectuals and entrepreneurs. Founded in 2011, it is becoming a platform for dialogue and action that is dedicated to addressing key challenges of global governance.