China's primary task now is to maintain steady and relatively fast economic growth, said visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday.

The Chinese government has "rolled out an array of policy measures to boost domestic demand and promote economic growth," he said in his key-note speech entitled Work Together to Write a New Chapter of China-Africa Friendship at the welcoming rally held by people from various sectors in this Tanzanian capital.

"This will not only lend a strong impetus to China's economic development but also stimulate world economic growth," he said.

Since last year, due to the impact of the global financial crisis and the notable slowdown of economic growth in the world, China has encountered more difficulties in its own economic development, he said.

Hu said the Chinese government, in the face of the situation, strengthened macroeconomic regulation and swiftly adjusted its policies.

Hu said China would continue to take effective measures to ensure steady and relatively fast growth of its own economy and play a constructive role in promoting stability and development of the world economy.

He also recalled China's 30-year-long reform and opening up program, saying China had successfully realized the historic transformation from a highly centralized planned economy to a vibrant socialist market economy, and from a closed or semi-closed society to one that fully embraces the world.

"China has achieved sustained and rapid economic growth, marked progress in social development programs and moderate prosperity for its people as a whole," Hu said.

Noting China is a big developing country with a population of 1.3 billion, the Chinese president said what China had achieved in the reform and opening up endeavor was in itself a significant contribution to world peace and development.

However, Hu said a huge population, weak economic foundation and uneven development remained the basic features of China.

"The problems and difficulties that we encounter in the course of development are rarely seen elsewhere in terms of their scale and complexity," said the Chinese leader.

"To build a well-off society in an all-round way and at a higher level that benefits the over 1 billion population, to basically achieve modernization of the country and to ensure common prosperity for all the Chinese people, we still have a very long way to go and we still need to make persistent and unyielding efforts," he said.

Tanzania is the fourth leg of Hu's week-long tour, which has taken him to Saudi Arabia, Mali and Senegal. He will later visit Mauritius before returning home on Tuesday.

This is Hu's sixth visit to Africa and his second since the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006 where he announced eight measures designed to forge a new type of strategic partnership with Africa.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2009)