A growing China will benefit Asia and the world, President Xi Jinping said on Sunday, delivering what analysts called a positive message amid the lingering global economic slowdown.

"The bigger the growth China achieves, the more opportunities the whole world can get," he said.

Xi made the remark on Sunday during his keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2013.

The country is expected to make overseas investments of $500 billion and import goods worth $10 trillion in the next five years, and its people will make 400 million trips abroad, Xi said at the three-day forum that opened on Saturday.

China outperformed many countries amid the global slowdown, despite its economic expansion hitting a 13-year low of 7.8 percent in 2012, as the European debt crisis dampened demand for Chinese shipments.

China has set an economic growth target of 7.5 percent for 2013.

In its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), it vowed to shift its growth model toward domestic consumption, as shrinking world demand for Chinese goods hurt exports.

China's growth is injecting vitality into the development of Asia, and it is also acting as an engine to the world economy, Brunei Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah said during the opening ceremony.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed by saying that China's economic rise and rapid growth have helped the Association of Southeast Asian Nations get out of its economic crisis.

China's economic growth benefits other regions and countries worldwide, he said.

China became the world's largest exporter in 2009 and overtook the United States as the world's largest trader last year.

China aims to double its GDP and per capita income by 2020 from 2010 levels.

Despite the drop in foreign direct investment globally, China's outbound direct investment has been rising since the 2008-09 financial crisis, and it is the world's fifth-largest investor.

Its outbound direct investment in the non-financial sector in 2012 surged by 30 percent from a year earlier to $77.2 billion, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Xi said China's accumulative ODI in the next five years will reach $500 billion, while the country has set a growth target of 15 percent for ODI this year.

Huo Jianguo, director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank to the Commerce Ministry, said, "Xi is sending a very positive signal that China's investment abroad will continue to be strong and globalization will accelerate. This will bring great benefits to the world."

But Xi said the way ahead is full of challenges. "China is still the largest developing country, and it is faced with several difficulties and long-term efforts are needed to overcome them," he said.

The nation is challenged by problems including slow economic growth, environmental pollution and unequal income distribution, economists said.

Regional growth

Xi said Asian countries must work closer together for sustained development within and beyond the region.

The president said Asia has contributed more than 50 percent of the world's economic growth in recent years, and he urged Asian countries to enhance cooperation, seek transformation and innovation, and further open up to the world to sustain economic growth.

"We need to deepen the cooperation among countries within the region," he said.

During the past decade, trade between Asian countries grew to $3 trillion from $800 billion, and the trade between Asia and the rest of the world more than tripled to $4.8 trillion from $1.5 trillion.

All the figures showed "Asia is open to the world, and the world has benefited from the opening-up", Xi said.

dingqingfen@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/08/2013 page1)