China confirms Li Keqiang as new premier

China’s annual parliament on Friday confirmed Li Keqiang as the nation’s new premier to replace Wen Jiabao, who retires after a decade in the post.

 ome 3,000 delegates to the National People’s Congress, the ruling Communist Party’s nominal state parliament, endorsed Li’s recommendation by the party.

Li, 57, the party’s official number two, is expected to oversee China’s economic development for the next 10 years.

 He was nominated to the congress on Friday by party leader Xi Jinping, who was appointed state president on Thursday to succeed Hu Jintao. He won 99.7 per cent of the 2,949 votes counted, with just three votes against him and six abstentions, officials said.

 Li, the seventh premier since the party founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, is scheduled to give his first news conference on Sunday following the close of the 13-day parliamentary session.

Li and Xi are expected to speed up the rebalancing of the world’s second-largest economy.