Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivers a special address during a plenary session to welcome guests of the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions in the Plenary Hall of the Dalian World Expo Center in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, Sept. 6, 2007. The Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also dubbed "Summer Davos", was opened here Thursday. More than 1,700 officials and business leaders from over 90 countries and regions took part in the event.

DALIAN, Sept. 6, 2007 -- The fast growth of China's economy shall keep its momentum, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday at the opening session of the summer meeting of the World Economic Forum in northeast China's port city of Dalian.

China's economy has maintained rapid growth for almost 30 years. The premier said he believes such a development momentum will continue.

"The pursuit of peace, development and cooperation is the trend of our times and this has made it possible for us to secure a long term peaceful international environment," he said.

Being in a stage of rapid industrialization and urbanization, China has the material and technological foundation to sustain economic growth, growing market demand, an abundant and increasingly well trained labor force, a large number of dynamic companies which have emerged in the course of reform and by pursuing innovation, and it enjoys social and political stability, he said.

"We need to pursue the right domestic and foreign policies and be able to adapt to change to fully seize these opportunities and make good use of these favorable conditions," Wen said.

"Despite the difficulties, risks and challenges on our way ahead, we have the confidence, capability and means to surmount them and advance the modernization drive. China's development has a bright prospect," he said.