"It's hard to be premier of the world's most populous nation," Wen has said. "A trivial issue becomes a big one when multiplied by 1.3 billion, and an astronomical figure becomes minute when divided by 1.3 billion."

In his first tenure as premier, Wen's government led China to become the world's fourth largest economy after the United States, Japan and Germany, blending effective macroeconomic regulation with a new market economy.

Promoting reforms

He pushed ahead reforms in the financial sector, including the shareholding reforms and listing of three leading State-owned commercial banks - the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank.

The three banks now rank second, sixth and seventh in the world respectively in terms of market capitalization, according to a top 100 bank list published by the Boston Consulting Group last year.

Wen led the country to cut energy consumption, reduce emissions and eliminate backward production facilities. These efforts began to pay off last year, when China reported, for the first time in years, a reduction in both chemical oxygen demand and emissions of sulfur dioxide, by 3.14 percent and 4.66 percent respectively from the previous year.

Facing a global economic slowdown and the severest inflationary pressure in recent decades, Wen said the country needs to maintain the appropriate pace, focus and intensity of macroeconomic regulation to sustain steady and fast economic development and avoid drastic fluctuations in the economy.

Born in 1942 in North China's port city of Tianjin, Wen worked in Gansu province for 14 years before he was moved to the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources in Beijing in 1982. Beginning 1985, he worked for eight years at the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, serving as its deputy director and then director.

Wen became China's youngest vice-premier in 1998, overseeing agricultural and rural affairs, economic planning and finance.

He was elected to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in 2002, and was reelected to the nine-member top decision-making body in 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2008)