Li vows to provide more jobs (2)

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The manufacturing PMI, which reflects factory production activity, rose to 51 in August from 50.3 in July, indicating the fastest expansion of the industry in 16 months.

A reading above 50 indicates activity in the sector is accelerating, while one below 50 points to a slowdown.

Li said China will be able to achieve long-term and healthy growth based on three basic factors.

These are huge potential for domestic demand in the industrialization and urbanization process; reform to eliminate obstacles in the government management system; and improvement in growth quality and efficiency based on increasing people's incomes and consumption.

"For the government, the top priority is to ensure sufficient employment," he said.

Li said the government will adopt a long-term, proactive employment policy, accelerate the service industry and promote occupational training to keep the labor market stable.

Chris Leung, a senior economist at DBS Bank in Singapore, said China is expected to maintain stable economic growth and achieve the 7.5 percent growth target set for this year, boosted by a series of positive economic figures for trade and inflation.

"The present macroeconomic environment is much different from the late-1990s, when conventional Keynesian and monetarist approaches could be applied aptly," said Leung, who added that he believes the policy taken by the Chinese government will neither over-stimulate the economy, nor allow it to sink further.

The country's economic growth slowed to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, down from 7.7 percent for the first. It was the ninth deceleration in the past 10 quarters.

Investors had feared the economy was slipping into a deeper-than-expected downturn, especially after the money market suffered an unprecedented cash crunch in June.

But the central government has introduced measures to stabilize the economy, including small-scale investment on railways and public housing construction and the launch of policies to help small companies in need of financing.

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