Premier Li Keqiang offers reassurance for world's biggest internet firms

Premier Li Keqiang sought yesterday to reassure some of the world's biggest internet companies that the mainland would embrace market competition and a level playing field to foster its internet sector, but he also stressed the need to regulate the web.

In a meeting with more than 70 heads of domestic and international internet firms at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, Li said China was willing to work with offshore partners on the basis of mutual openness and respect, state media reported.

"We are embracing the internet and developing the sector along market lines so that market entry can be autonomous, the mechanism be market-based and companies can compete fairly," he said.

The event, which ends today, is organised by China's newly formed Cyberspace Administration and has attracted policymakers and top industry executives, including the chief executives of tech firms Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu.

Among foreign companies attending the conference were executives from Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, IBM, Microsoft, Qualcomm, SoftBank, Cisco Systems, Amazon and Nokia.