BEIJING - As China's premier and No. 2 position, Li Qiang, a close ally of President Xi Jinping, assumed office on Saturday. He is now in charge of reviving an economy that has been battered by COVID-19 curbs for three years.

The 63-year-old Li, who is widely regarded as pragmatic and business-friendly, faces the challenging task of shoring up China's uneven recovery in the face of global headwinds and low consumer and private sector confidence.

Li takes office as tensions with the West increase over a number of issues, including U.S. efforts to deny China access to critical technologies, and as many multinational corporations diversify their supply chains to reduce their exposure to China as a result of political risks and the COVID era's disruptions.

The career bureaucrat succeeds Li Keqiang, who is stepping down after serving two terms of five years each. During those terms, his influence was seen to gradually wane as Xi tightened his hold on power and guided the second-largest economy in the world in a more statist direction.

Since Li Qiang is the first premier since the People's Republic's inception who has never held a position in the central government, analysts predict a steep learning curve for him during his first few months on the job.

Still, Li's close ties with Xi - Li was Xi's chief of staff between 2004 and 2007, when the latter was provincial party secretary of Zhejiang province - will empower him to get things done, leadership-watchers said.

"My reading of the situation is that Li Qiang will have a lot more leeway and authority within the system," said Trey McArver, co-founder of consultancy Trivium China.

After being unanimously elected president, a largely ceremonial position, for an unprecedented third term on Friday, Xi, 69, is installing a slate of loyalists in key positions in the biggest government reshuffle in a decade as a generation of more reform-minded officials retires and he further consolidates power.

Li received 2,936 votes on Saturday, with three votes against and eight abstentions, according to results displayed on a screen inside Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

On Monday, after the parliamentary session has ended, he will make his eagerly anticipated debut on the global stage during the premier's traditional media question-and-answer session.

When Li was elected to the second position on the Politburo Standing Committee during the twice-decade Communist Party Congress, he was put on the path to becoming the premier in October.

On Sunday, a large number of additional Xi-approved officials, including vice premiers, a governor of the central bank, and other ministers and department heads, are scheduled to be confirmed.

China's economy expanded by only 3% last year, and Beijing announced its lowest growth target in almost three decades for 2023 on the first day of parliament.

According to Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics, Li's top priority this year will be reaching that goal without causing significant inflation or debt accumulation.

Although China has not indicated that it intends to use stimulus to kick-start growth, Beddor said that potential setbacks like a collapse in exports or persistent weakness in the real estate sector could force Li's hand.

"In the name of COVID containment, the leadership has already consented to two years of unusually slow economic growth. They won't accept another now that containment is gone "said he.

China's post-pandemic recovery has been uneven, with February's inflation coming in unexpectedly low, and e-commerce behemoth JD.com Inc. warning on Thursday that it would take time to restore consumer confidence.

Li will have to put in a lot of effort to restore confidence in the private sector after some of Beijing's most prosperous private companies, like Alibaba (9988.HK), were battered by arbitrary crackdowns and regulatory obstacles in recent years.

The global economy is also cautious. A majority of responding companies indicated that China is no longer viewed as a "top three investment priority" for the first time in the survey's 25-year history, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in China, which released its findings early this month.

China is making an effort to appear business-friendly.

An official from China's state planning agency met with a vice president from the American chip giant Qualcomm Inc. on Friday, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency, and conveyed that China will create a favorable business environment for multinational corporations.