Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao speaks at the annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21,2016. [Photo: xinhua]

Chinese president issued an upbeat assessment of the country's economic prospects while attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday. His remarks were made shortly after lower growth figures for China in 2015 triggered global concern.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao described growth in 2015 as "steady" and said China is still an economic force.

"China remains a major driving force for global economic growth. This is my first point. Second, China has the confidence and capability to maintain medium to high growth. As the world is yet to shrug off the deep impact of the global financial crisis, its economy is still in the period of profound adjustment. The Chinese economy, closely connected with the world economy, has entered a new normal, shifting from fast, quantitative expansion, to a stage of pursuing higher quality and efficiency."

Investor concerns mounted over the health of China's economy with official figures showing that GDP growth expanded at an annual grow rate of 6.9 percent in 2015, its weakest rate in the past 25 years.

The Vice President stressed that in the past five years, China's GDP grew from over 7 trillion US dollars to over 10 trillion , forming a solid material foundation for future development.

The fiscal revenue for China for 2015 is expected to grow by more than five percent and by the end of 2015, China's foreign exchange reserve surpassed 3.3 trillion US dollars, being the world's biggest.

Li says China will improve cooperation with the rest of the world and take steps to facilitate foreign investment.

"We will speed up negotiations on investment agreements and tear down all kinds of trade barriers, continue to improve the environment for foreign investors in China, and to participate actively in global economic governance."

The vice president says China's development priority in the coming years is to maintain medium to high growth, and provide new driving forces for the economy.

World Bank Vice President and Chief Economist Kaushik Basu says China's GDP growth rate, compared to the rest of the world, remains quite remarkable.

He says China's structural reform is moving in the right direction and suggested that China should take the opportunity of the fourth industrial revolution to achieve economic restructuring.

"China, actually in some areas of digital technology, China is already in a leadership role. Retail trading, the retail business in China is extremely advanced. So China should take the model of its own success in the retail sector. For other kinds of digital connectivity that links up its people, that has some negative fallouts and dangers, but to stay away from a new technology which has arrived in the word is going to disadvantage you hugely."

Basu also says the highest risk for the global economy this year will come from emerging economies.

The economic performance of emerging economies differs greatly, as the economies of China and India are quite stable while Brazil and South Africa are in recession.