Against the backdrop of fragile global recovery and potential challenges facing Asia-Pacific development, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday expounded on his suggestion for regional growth and expressed confidence in China's economy.

In a keynote speech addressing an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit, Xi briefed business leaders on China's current economic situation and direction of reform.

Noting some current and potential difficulties and challenges in the region, Xi urged to accelerate regional economic integration and enhance connectivity in the Asia-Pacific.

As the world's second largest economy, China's economic performance is always in the limelight.

"With global growth slowing down, China is working vigorously to overcome difficulties and meet challenges by strengthening macro regulation and effectively advancing reforms," said the Chinese president.

Xi said the overall economy has operated within the reasonable range and maintained steady and fairly rapid growth, achieving a growth rate of 6.9 percent in the first three quarters this year and contributing about 30 percent to global economic growth.

Xi's address conveyed China's confidence in its economy, especially at a time when the global economy is confronted with some difficulties and challenges, said Huang Wei, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The slowdown in China's economic growth is not out of control, Huang said, adding that the country is focusing more on economic structure optimization and sustainable development.

Referring to the proposal on China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) recently adopted, Xi said China will step up reform and innovation, accelerate the shift of growth model and economic restructuring, address the difficult issues in development, cultivate new drivers and new edges for development.

Tang Guoqiang, chairman of the China National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, said the CEOs spoke highly of Xi's remarks on China's economic proposals and believed the Chinese government can promote a healthy development of the country's economy, which would bring more opportunities to the Asia-Pacific region.

With various new regional free trade arrangements cropping up, worries about fragmentation are on the increase.

In his speech, Xi urged relative parties to speed up the realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and strengthen the openness and inclusiveness of free trade arrangements to the greatest extent possible.

Recalling that APEC leaders made a historic step in 2014 in Beijing by launching the FTAAP process, he called for concerted efforts to boost the openness of the Asia-Pacific economy and safeguard multilateral trade systems.

In order to avoid fragmentation, Liu Chenyang, director of the APEC research center of Nankai University, suggested that the Asia-Pacific economies need more coordination among the existing free trade arrangements and promotion of the construction of the FTAAP.

Huang echoed Liu's comments, saying that the FTAAP is a blessing to enterprises of all kinds in the region as they can operate and compete in a more fair and just framework.

The accelerated construction of the FTAAP would be conducive to regional economic recovery, Huang added.

The article is a commentary from the Xinhua News Agency. The article first appeared in Xinhua. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn