DALIAN, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The "Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions", also known as the summer meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) or Summer Davos, kicked off Thursday in northeast China's coastal city of Dalian.

"It has been 36 years since the inception of the Forum in 1971.Starting from this year, the forum will hold an annual Summer Davos in China. This shows the world's increasing interest in China's economic development and the growing cooperation between China and the forum," said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the opening session of the meeting.

China's economy, which has maintained rapid growth for almost 30 years, shall keep its momentum, said the premier firmly in his keynote speech. "We need to pursue the right domestic and foreign policies and be able to adapt to change to fully seize these opportunities and make good use of these favorable conditions," he said.

The premier dismissed speculation that China's rise in the world would pose threat to other countries. "As China's development has shown and will continue to show, a prosperous, democratic, harmonious, civilized and modernized China will make even greater contribution to maintaining world peace and promoting human progress," he said.

Encouraging fast-growing companies to locate more of their research and development centers in China, Wen emphasized that China will unswervingly stick to its policy of opening-up and protect foreign investors' legal rights by improving concerned laws and regulations. "China strives to create a fair and transparent environment for them," he said.

Finnish President Tarja Halonen, United Arabic Emirates Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis and Singaporean Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong as well as the Queen of Jordan Rania al-Abdullah attended the meeting.

The meeting, slated for Sept. 6 to 8, drew some 2,000 participants, including government officials, scholars and business leaders from 90 countries and regions.

The WEF, founded in 1971 and based in Geneva of Switzerland, is an impartial and not-for-profit organization which convened annually in the ski resort Davos as an economic and political brainstorming meeting.