Chinese President Xi Jinping promised "no hard landing" for the world's second largest economy despite its slowdown, during a state visit to Britain focused bolstering business and trade ties.

It comes after data showed Chinese growth slowing to 6.9 percent in its third quarter, its worst performance since the 2009 financial crisis and a confirmation of slowing in an economy accustomed to double-digit growth.

"As the world biggest emerging economy, China has entered a new normal in its economic development," Xi told the UK-China Business Summit during his trip, the first by a Chinese president in a decade.

"The Chinese economy does face some downward pressure and structural problems, but such adjustments look inevitable when the economy reaches a certain stage after years of high growth."

He added that China would seek to boost growth through domestic consumption, rather than through exports and investment as before.

Highlighting the heft of the Chinese economy despite recent turbulence in its financial markets, Xi said that over the next five years China would import the equivalent of $10,000 billion worth of goods and that 500 million Chinese tourists would travel abroad.

A clutch of business contracts said by British Prime Minister David Cameron to be worth almost �40 billion ($61.6 billion, 54.4 billion euros) have been announced during Xi's visit, as well as the launch of the first yuan-denominated bond in London as China seeks to internationalise its currency.

Xi said that China and Britain would collaborate in financial services, rail and energy infrastructure, as well as emerging sectors such as bioenergy, smart cities, information technology and e-commerce.

Alibaba boss calls on Western SMEs to enter Chinese market
London (AFP) Oct 21, 2015 - Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese online commerce giant Alibaba, on Wednesday urged small and medium-sized Western companies to take advantage of China's expanding middle-class by entering the country's markets.

"In the next 10-20 years, we believe there will be half-a-billion middle class people (in China)," he told the UK-China Business Summit, which was held in London on the fringes of Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit.

"In the last 20 years China was focused on exporting, in the next 10-20 years China will focus on importing" and consumption to fuel its growth engine, added the billionaire,

"Our strategy is not helping Chinese companies to sell things to Europe... We are coming here to help the small business here, in the UK, in Europe, to sell to China," he said of Alibaba.

Instead of viewing China's growth as a threat, Western firms should see it as a "huge opportunity", he said.

"China will be... the international market of the global business," predicted Ma.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday appointed Ma to his business advisory group.

Xi has signed a series of trade contracts on his state visit, despite criticism from human rights groups who accuse the British government of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses by Beijing.