BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday convened a symposium with experts and entrepreneurs to seek their opinions on the current economic situation and work for the next stage.

During the meeting, participants reached a consensus that the Chinese economy had gotten off to a solid start in the first three months of 2026, with multiple indicators outperforming expectations. They noted that despite challenges from external shocks, China has rolled out proactive and effective macroeconomic policies, and that new drivers of high-quality development have continued to gain momentum and grow stronger.

After listening to the speeches of the attendees, Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed the importance of gaining a deep understanding of the internal drivers underpinning China's steady and improving economic performance. He called for thorough analysis of future trends in the international economic and trade landscape, and emphasized the need to handle calmly all kinds of risks and challenges.

More efforts should be made to ensure effective implementation of the country's macroeconomic policies, and to make them more forward-looking, targeted and coordinated, Li said.

Specifically, Li stressed the need to promote high-quality and efficient development of the service sector to better meet people's full life-cycle needs and businesses' whole-process production and operational needs. He also underscored the importance of accelerating the digital and intelligent transformation of the manufacturing sector and promoting deeper integration between advanced manufacturing and modern services.

Greater efforts are needed to boost employment and raise incomes for both urban and rural residents, tap job-creation potential across multiple channels and sectors and create new occupations, thereby fostering a virtuous cycle of higher incomes, stronger domestic demand and sustained economic growth, Li added.

Li also expressed the hope that entrepreneurs will achieve more progress in their respective industries and make greater contributions to advancing innovation-driven development, stabilizing employment and boosting incomes.