Slower economic growth and tighter controls on pollution were unveiled as key themes for the coming year when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang opened parliament's annual session on Thursday, state media reported. Li warned of "formidable difficulty" in 2015 as he set out a slower growth target of 7 percent in a speech to the National People's Congress, Xinhua news agency reported. However, Li said he was "fully confident" in the potential and resilience of China's development. Last year's gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 7.4 percent, the slowest in 24 years.
"Over the past year, the international and domestic environments faced by China in its development have been complicated and challenging," Li told representatives. "The road to global economic recovery has been rough, with many ups and downs, and the performance of the major economies has been divergent. Downward pressure on China's economy has continued to mount, and we have faced an array of interwoven difficulties and challenges."
Other economic indicators were also set at lower rates than last year. The consumer price index was set at 3 percent and unemployment at 4.5 percent.
China's GDP stood at $10.39 trillion in 2014, meaning 7 percent growth would produce an annual increase of more than $800 billion at current prices, Fan Jianping, chief economist for the State Information Center of China, said. That would produce a dollar rise greater than that provided by 10 percent growth five years ago, Fan told Xinhua. China, the world's second largest economy, is attempting to move from export-led growth fuelled by state investment to one driven by higher domestic consumption and a larger service sector. Turning to the "blight" of pollution, Li said environmental laws would be strictly enforced as he listed the environment as a major development goal for the first time in the annual government work report. He said the government aims to cut energy intensity - the units of energy used per unit of GDP - by 3.1 percent in 2015.
Li also pledged to continue reducing the emission of major pollutants that are a major contributing factor to the smog affecting China's cities. Last year, eight of China's 74 major cities failed to meet the national clean air standard.
China will also "put great weight" on developing alternative energy sources such as wind power.
