BEIJING, November 24 (INP): China's economy is heading for long-term steady growth on the back of its highly competitive and vast domestic market as well as its growing capacity for technological innovation, officials and experts said. "The potential of the Chinese market lies in competition", as the market not only features a vast size but also the vitality brought by intense competition, reports China Economic Net on Sunday, quoting Ning Jizhe, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission. According to the fourth national economic census, provided evidence of China's large group of market entities by global standards, as the total number of legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries, and some small businesses had surpassed 100 million by the end of last year. These market entities, no matter State-owned, privately owned or foreign-funded, all compete with each other intensely in the country. Most Chinese SOEs have established modernized institutions amid domestic competition, making them capable of competing on the global arena. As China is undergoing the transition from old to new growth models and has recently encountered rising external uncertainties, downside pressure has grown over the course of this year. Year-on-year expansion of the economy stood at 6.2 percent for the first three quarters, versus 6.3 percent in the first half of the year. Growth of industrial output, fixed-asset investment and retail sales in October all slowed from the previous month, official data showed. For the Chinese economy to maintain healthy and steady growth, the key is to comprehensively deepen reforms, further high-level opening-up, and push ahead technological innovation, Xie Fuzhan, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said. China's innovation ability has strengthened in recent years, whose rank in Global Innovation Index climbed to the world's 14th this year from 17th in 2018, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. Inp/javed