The National People's Congress session started with Premier Li Keqiang's government work report, in which he reviews China's gain and loss in 2015, and outlines the task in 2016.
"This year we set the target of GDP growth between 6.5 and 7 percent. This takes into consideration the guarantee of employment and people's livelihoods," he said.
"To meet the target, we have acknowledged the challenges of both the sluggish global economic recovery and the continued downward pressure at home."
It's the first year the premier has set a range, instead of a point, for the growth target. Experts say it means the country is less obsessed with growth figures, and more on the quality and consequences of the growth. In fact, China is the only large industrial country that still sets a growth target each year.
"We can only go for moderation instead of total elimination in a short while. Otherwise people get confused and disarrayed. So that's why instead of giving a specific figure we say 'approximately', or 'in the range', so that people basically have an idea of the general direction," said Liu Baocheng, University of Int'l Business & Economics.
Premier Li's report focused a lot on economic reform and restructuring.
"We must accelerate breaking down the obstacles in our systems and mechanisms, and increase market vitality through supply-side reform, and replacing old drivers of growth with new ones. We should strive to achieve major breakthroughs in basic research, applied research, and research in strategic and frontier fields by 2020," he said.
2016 is also the first year of China's 13th five-year plan. The government made a pledge long ago that by the time the plan concludes in 2020, China will have built up a moderately prosperous society.
