BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The underlying conditions for and basic trend of the long-term sound development of the Chinese economy remain unchanged, a spokesperson said Monday.

Liu Jieyi, spokesperson for the third session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, made the remarks at a press conference.

Liu said the Chinese economy has a solid foundation, numerous advantages, strong resilience and vast potential, noting that the country has distinctive institutional strengths, a supersized domestic market and a complete industrial system.

The spokesperson acknowledged that both domestic and external environments are undergoing profound changes and that the country's economic development still faces many challenges and difficulties, with domestic demand still insufficient and risks in some areas yet to be defused.

He called for addressing difficulties head-on and maintaining confidence, and stressed that the high-quality development of the economy will reach new heights.

The country has vowed to promote opening up across more areas and in greater depth, according to the spokesperson.

He said the country will continue to steadily expand institutional opening up, deepen foreign trade structural reform, optimize the layout for regional opening up, and improve the mechanism for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Over the past year, China has deepened the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, accelerated the modernization of its industrial system, and made remarkable achievements in developing new quality productive forces, Liu said.

Noting that new quality productive forces serve as the strong engines driving China's high-quality development, Liu called for continued efforts to further unleash their dynamism.■