Li urges multinational firms to deepen cooperation

BEIJING - Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called on multinational companies to seize opportunities arising from China's economic restructuring and expand cooperation.

Li made the comments at a seminar held with a group of foreign business executives who have attended the Global CEO Council in Beijing or will participate in the 2013 Fortune Global Forum, which will open on Thursday in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province.

Li briefed the executives on China's current economic situation, saying that maintaining steady growth is a major task for the country.

Li said China will deepen reform, open more widely to the outside world, restructure its economic development mode and pay more attention to the quality and effect of its economic development.

Despite a sluggish global market and difficult economic recovery, China's industrialization and urbanization will generate huge potential, Li said.

"China has the potential and conditions to maintain steady and sound economic growth," he said.

Li urged the executives to expand cooperation, particularly in technological development, in order to better use their companies' expertise and technologies in China.

Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Jeffrey Bewkes and IBM Chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty thanked Li on behalf of all of the executives for speaking at the seminar.

They said the 2013 Fortune Global Forum and the Global CEO Council reflect the great importance multinational companies have placed on the Chinese market and the confidence they have in China's economic prospects.

They said they will seize new opportunities to expand cooperation with China.