RIO DE JANEIRO -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Monday that China stands ready to work with the international community to get the world economy back on track at an early date.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the sidelines of the 17th BRICS Summit.

The global trade has undergone significant changes with rising unilateralism and protectionism, which has severely impacted the international economic and trade order and posed grave challenges to the world economy and countries' development, said Li.

Against this backdrop, the international community has a stronger call for safeguarding the multilateral trading system and has growing expectations for the WTO to play a more active role, he added.

Noting that economic globalization is an irreversible trend of history, Li said that China will, as always, continue to practice and safeguard multilateralism and free trade, actively support the reform and development of the WTO to restore its authority, accelerate the improvement of trade rules, and push for more concrete outcomes of the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference.

Li said China has abundant resources and means to counter adverse external impacts, and is confident in and capable of promoting a steady and healthy economic development.

This year, China has implemented more proactive and effective macro policies, advanced the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and launched special initiatives to boost consumption, he said, noting the huge, growing demand unleashed by the super-large market of over 1.4 billion consumers.

China, Li added, will introduce more measures for voluntary and unilateral opening up, strictly abide by the principles and market rules of the WTO, and continue to share development opportunities with other countries, so as to inject positive energy into the world.

For her part, Okonjo-Iweala noted that the current multilateral trading system has been impacted, and the global economy and trade growth are facing severe challenges.

She called on WTO members to enhance dialogue and cooperation, safeguard the multilateral trading system and promote sustainable development.

The WTO highly commends China's long-term support and assistance to the least developed countries, and highly values its important role in the multilateral trading system, she said.

The WTO chief also said that the world trade body looks forward to working with China and other members to promote WTO reform, create an open and inclusive trade environment, and provide favorable conditions for global trade development and economic recovery.