China will encourage innovation as the world's second largest economy presses for supply-side structural reforms, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday.

"We will continue to build China into an innovation-driven country by using innovative concepts, growing new economy and fostering new growth," Li said at the opening ceremony of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016, held in north China's port city of Tianjin.

Li said China will continue to promote mass entrepreneurship and "the Internet Plus" initiative to foster new growth engines.

The country's promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation will bring together innovative activities by people from both the elite circle and the grass-root level, online and offline, as well as business and research institutes, Li said.