Vice President Xi Jinping on Thursday said keeping China's economy growing amid the global financial crisis would test the competence of government leaders.

At a two-day meeting that started on Wednesday, attended by about 10 provincial leaders, Xi urged government officials to find ways to sustain steady, rapid economic growth.

Government leaders should integrate their study and practice with ways to tackle the financial crisis and implement central policies on domestic demand expansion and boost economic growth, he said.

The official said leaders' competence and confidence to solve conflicts and problems should be strengthened and tested through practice.

Leaders' study and research should have a clear objective and theoretical studies should be reflected in the ability to promote development and social harmony.

China, the world's fourth-largest economy, has started to feel the impact of the global financial crisis.

Migrant workers, most of whom left farms to seek work in the cities, have started to retreat from the country's better-off coastal provinces and large cities as economic conditions worsen.

Economic growth hit a five-year low in the third quarter with a rate of 9 percent. And the World Bank recently forecast that growth would fall to 7.5 percent next year because of the world downturn.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2008)