Western regions see good growth in investment

The government is seeking "new economic drivers", she said, and as consumption still cannot play a sufficient role in boosting the sluggish economy, many think infrastructure investment remains crucial.

The new economic belts along the western region and the Yangtze River, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone will become China's new beacons of economic growth, she said.

Chinese leaders said in November that the country would put $40 billion into a special New Silk Road fund to drive investment in infrastructure, speed industrial and financial cooperation, and break the connectivity bottleneck in Asia.

That new fund will focus mainly on overseas projects, said Chen, with the new railway projects financed mainly through local government funding and public-private partnerships.

Energy use declines in China during 2014

Energy use per unit of GDP－a measure of the energy efficiency of a nation's economy－is expected to decline by up to 4.7 percent in China iin 2014, according to a leading official at the country's top economic planner, signaling changes in the structure of the world's second-largest economy and the impact of slower economic growth.

The forecast is higher than the 3.9 percent target set at the beginning of the year, and just higher than the 4.6 percent fall recorded for the first three quarters of 2014.

Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China's economic transformation requires specific energy structure adjustments to be made.

China will increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its overall energy mix to 11.4 percent by 2015, said Xie, and aims to raise the share of non-fossil fuels to 20 percent by 2030.

The country will also step up efforts at shutting down outdated production capacity and strictly control newly added capacity in energy-guzzling industries such as steel, nonferrous metals, building materials, petrochemicals and chemicals by fully implementing environmental assessment procedures, Xie said.