China helping world economic recovery but risks remain: PM

China's economy helped power the world's recovery from the devastating financial crisis that erupted two years ago, but risks remained for the Asian country, Premier Wen Jiabao said today.

Speaking at the start of the World Economic Forum's three-day "Summer Davos" in the northern port city of Tianjin, Wen also pledged to ensure an open and fair environment for foreign businesses operating in the Asian powerhouse.

"China's economic growth has provided major development opportunities for the multinationals and created huge demand for major economies and neighbouring  countries," Wen said."It has become an important engine for the world economic recovery," the premier said, praising his country's massive stimulus package as "timely, fruitful, effective and suited to China's realities".

"China's economy is now in good shape, featuring fast growth, gradual structural improvement, rising employment and basic price stability," he said.But Wen warned that China lacked "balance, coordination and sustainability in economic development" and said government policies needed to be "more targeted and flexible" to maintain the fast-growing economy's momentum.

Beijing responded swiftly to the global recession, unleashing a four-trillion-yuan (USD 586 billion) stimulus package in late 2008 and ordering state-owned banks to boost lending to spur economic activity.

The economy returned to double-digit growth of 10.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, as concerns turned to the risks of rising inflation and a possible explosion in bad debts after lending nearly doubled to 9.6 trillion yuan last year.

China's economy slowed in the second quarter of 2010, growing 10.3 per cent compared with a blistering 11.9 per cent in the first three months, after Beijing introduced a slew of measures designed to avoid overheating.

But it outpaced its neighbour Japan in the second quarter, putting it on course to officially confirm its position as the world's number two economy, a title Japan  held for 40 years.