Consumers to drive growth: Li Keqiang

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Vice-Premier Li Keqiang reaches the podium to deliver his speech on the second day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos yesterday. [AFP]

'Excessively reliant on investment and exports'

Vice-Premier Li Keqiang said last night that China will seek to boost domestic consumption to drive forward its booming economy, acknowledging that export growth alone was unsustainable for development.

Li, speaking at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, said China would look to increase employment and income levels of its poorer people, hoping to unleash the huge potential of the Chinese consumer.

He also said the government would break monopolies and encourage competition while integrating more deeply into the global economy.

China recently surpassed Germany as the world's top exporter, but Li noted that economic strategies have been "excessively reliant on investment and exports".

China has emerged as one of the key countries of interest at the Davos forum with its economy set to overtake Japan's as the second-largest this year, and as the voice of the developing world.

However, its increasing clout has also led to conjecture on whether it could play a role that lives up to global expectations.

As Kristin Forbes, a former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said: "China is the West's greatest hope and greatest fear."

Amid the hope-and-fear scenario, China should not overreach itself while actively participating in global coordination to solve the world's problems, Chinese analysts said.

Discussions of China's role amid and after the global financial crisis have been heated in mainstream Western medias, especially during the forum. More than 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries, representing business, government and social sectors are attending the event.

The West expects Beijing to be more engaged in global affairs but also anticipates increasing trade friction with the world's largest exporter.

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