The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday established the Department of International Economic Affairs to serve economic diplomacy, an increasingly important part of China's diplomatic blueprint.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said at the inaugural ceremony that the new department will help China deal with its greater involvement in international economic cooperation and its implementation of the mutually beneficial opening-up strategy.

It will also safeguard China's national development interests and economic security, and contribute to world economic growth, said the minister.

The ministry last set up a new department in 2009 when the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs was established.