THE HAGUE — China welcomes all business partners for broader and closer cooperation and will take tougher measures to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) to create a favorable environment for innovation, Premier Li Keqiang said on Oct 16.

Premier Li made the remarks when addressing the China-Netherlands Business Forum in The Hague, which gathered over 400 business leaders and representatives from the two countries.

China will open its door wider to the outside world and take more steps to expand market access, he said, noting that China will treat all enterprises registered in China equally.

The Chinese economy is going through a stage of high quality development with enormous potential lying ahead, Premier Li said, calling on businesses around the world, big or small, to seize opportunity to explore the Chinese market.

China is implementing its innovation-driven development strategy, with a boom of new growth drivers now contributing to some two thirds of the newly created employment, the Premier said.

Speaking highly of Sino-Dutch practical cooperation, the Premier said the two governments will create an open and fair environment for cooperation between the two countries’ businesses.

President Xi Jinping and Dutch King Willem-Alexander exchanged visits in recent years, which has guided and promoted the two countries’ ties, Premier Li said, adding that China will continue to work with the Netherlands to boost cooperation towards a larger scale and a closer and higher level.

Citing the complicated global situation and rising protectionism and unilateralism, Premier Li also reiterated China’s willingness to make joint efforts with the Netherlands to safeguard multilateralism and the rule-based free trade system.

Meanwhile, Premier Li vowed to further strengthen IPR protection, saying that China by no means allows any forced transfer of the IPR. “Any transfer of the IPR must be based on the will of the enterprises.”

Without IPR protection, innovation cooperation is impossible and expansion of investment in the Chinese market lacks foundation, Premier Li said.

The Premier said any IPR violation in China will be severely punished in accordance with the law.

As for economic growth, Premier Li said despite the mounting pressure of the downward economy, China has determination and ability to tackle risks and challenges.

China is fully confident of meeting the expected goal for this year’s development, maintaining a long-term medium-high rate of growth, and promoting the economy to move toward the medium-high end, he added.

Ahead of the forum, enterprises of the two countries signed a series of agreements worth nearly $10 billion.

During his speech, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte highlighted the vigorous development of Dutch-Sino relations, saying that the two countries’ practical cooperation in such fields as trade and investment enjoys continuous growth.

More than 900 Dutch companies do businesses and make investments in China and the number is increasing, Rutte said.

The Netherlands admires the great achievements China has gained from the reform and opening-up, Rutte said, adding that his country highly appreciates China’s positive role in dealing with climate change and is willing to work with China to explore business opportunities in this area.

As a trading country, the Netherlands will work together with China to firmly support the rule-based multilateralism and the fair and equitable free trade, and oppose protectionism.