Xi Jinping: 'China will protect foreign companies'

China's President, Xi Jinping, has promised to protect the rights of foreign companies.

His promise came as many global firms worry about Chinese policies that hurt their business in the country.
Xi also said the days of double-digit economic growth in China are likely to be over.

"China will sustain relatively high economic growth, but not super-high economic growth," he said at a business conference in Southern China.

Xi, who became president last month, said China would "protect the lawful rights and interests of foreign-invested companies" and "ensure their rights to equal participation in government procurement and independent innovation".

"China will never close its door to the outside world," he said. "Now that we have opened this door we will not close it, not for now and not in the future."

The comments came after senior executives from companies including PepsiCo, Volvo and Samsung met Xi to express their concerns including about restriction on types of investments they can make.