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Lovemore Chikova in BEIJING, China
The Chinese government has said it will do everything possible to ensure that the country’s economy does not suffer a negative growth despite the slow recovery on the world stage.

Speaking at a Press conference to mark the end of China’s two-week legislative period recently, Li Keqiang, said they would work hard to relieve the downward pressure on the economy.

“We remain confident in China’s economic future, and I have enough reasons to explain why,” he said.

“As long as China maintains its policy of reform and opening up, the Chinese economy will not see a hard landing.

“Through reform, we will further exploit market potential and encourage people’s creativity, thus relieving the downward pressure.”

The maintenance of the upward trend in the Chinese economy will be of great interest, especially to Zimbabwe, which is implementing multi-billion deals signed with the global economic giant. The deals are in various sectors, which include infrastructure, energy, power, trade and agriculture, with some Chinese partners already on site for some of the projects.

The deals were signed when President Mugabe paid a State visit to China in 2014 and more deals were signed when Chinese President Xi Jinping also visited Zimbabwe on a State visit in December last year.

The implementation of the deals hinge on the continued stability and growth of the Chinese economy, which is expected to grow by between 6,5 percent and 7 percent this year.

Premier Li said the Chinese economy was creating more opportunities out of the unpleasant state of the global economy. “It’s true that the world economy is recovering slowly,” he said. “This will have an impact on China. We are indeed under a heavy downward pressure, but there are both challenges and opportunities raised by this pressure. Taking a look at the overall situation, there are more opportunities than challenges.

“I don’t agree with the idea that China will be unable to achieve its economic goals. The global economic situation is unstable, but we have many policy tools. Given the sluggish global environment, we chose to promote sustainable economic development.

“We have developed innovative macro-control policies to ensure that our economy will grow steadily. China is gathering a new growth momentum and will sustain its traditional growth momentum. They will serve as the twin engines of our economic growth.”

On the international scene, Premier Li said China was calling for a peaceful environment to enhance economic development.

“China has given top priority to economic development,” he said.

“We need a peaceful international environment. China will continue to take the road of peaceful development and also safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. These two aims are not contradictory. China needs a long-term, peaceful and stable regional and international environment. It is hard to avoid troubles. As long as we are honest with each other and confront our differences peacefully, any problems that arise can be solved.”

The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, which opened two weeks ago, held the closing meeting of its annual session last Wednesday.

The two-week period witnessed the “two sessions” sittings of the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Both bodies came up with proposals covering all aspects of the people’s daily lives and laid a foundation for the growth of living standards in the Asian country. One of the major highlights was the adoption of the country’s economic and social development blueprint for the 2016-2020 period, which sets the targeted average annual economic growth of above 6,5 percent in the next five years.