Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday ruled out short-term forceful stimulus measures to boost the Chinese economy amid fluctuations, and said China will focus on quality growth.

Li made the remarks in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the annual meeting of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Boao, South China's Hainan Province.

"We will not take short-term forceful stimulus measures in response to temporary economic fluctuations. We will focus more on medium- and long-term healthy development," Li said.

The premier explained that the 7.5 percent target for economic growth this year is an approximate figure, which allows for fluctuations.

 "As long as we can ensure sufficient employment and no major fluctuations, then economic growth will still be within a reasonable range."

The keynote speech delivers the message that China will pay more attention to long-term quality growth rather than a temporary high GDP growth rate, Chen Yulu, president of the Renmin University of China and a member of the central bank's monetary policy committee, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Li said that China's economy has been stable and was generally in good shape at the beginning of this year. He cited improving urban employment, income of residents, firms' profits, steadily growing fiscal income, stable consumer prices and increasing power consumption.

Li warned the economy still faces downward pressures but "we have the ability and confidence to keep economic growth in a reasonable range," he said.

Some financial institutions predicted that China's GDP in the first quarter of this year slowed to 7.3 percent, while the official figure is expected next week.

Even if it were 7.3 percent, it is still within the range close to 7.5 percent, Chen noted, adding that employment is on the rise, which shows economic growth has more value than before.

Premier Li told the BFA meeting that China will further unleash measures to push forward reforms and structural adjustment so as to ensure steady economic growth.

The measures include replicating and expanding the pilot scheme of the free trade zone in Shanghai, and further opening up capital markets by interconnecting the stock exchanges of Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Other measures include expanding the pilot scheme of value-added tax reform to more service industries including postal and telecommunications industries, cutting taxes for the self-employed, and boosting construction of railways and roads in China's middle and western regions.

"We will take comprehensive measures to encourage consumption, to lower costs of distribution and let consumption play a better role in supporting economic development," he said.

Premier Li's speech bolstered the confidence of private enterprises with the key words of reform, innovation and sustainability, Jiang Dong, executive president of Guangzhou-based Daohe Group, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the annual BFA meeting.

It indicates that China has enough leeway for reforms and policies in areas such as the development of the service sector and liberalizing the capital market, Chen said, adding people will see increasing market power but it takes time.

Government efforts such as cutting administrative powers, tax cuts on small and micro-sized enterprises, interest rate regime reform and acceleration of the yuan's convertibility will further unleash market power to the benefit of the economy, Chen said.

China's economic slowdown will impact the rest of the world, because China has been a great source of demand for raw materials, investment and products from other parts of the world, Arun Maira, a member of the Planning Commission of India, told the Global Times in an interview on Thursday. "Slowdown of demand will result in slowdown somewhere else," said Maira.

However, Maira noted that, "If China's GDP growth slows down but its quality of growth improves as the premier said, it will help the world actually, because the nature of the demand in China will change."

In addition to the economy, Premier Li also mentioned in his speech that China will actively push forward negotiations for a regional free trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and hope that the RCEP agreement will be reached by 2015.

Apart from the RCEP, the premier said China will study the feasibility of initiating the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), and is willing to see the success of the US-dominated Trans-Pacific Partnership as long as it contributes to a fair and open trade environment.