More than half of China's cities and counties, including those in depressed areas, will "soon" be exempt from evaluation by annual GDP growth targets, Yang Weimin, deputy head of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs, said on Thursday.

The move follows the government's recent reform plans after the Party's third plenum, including better evaluation of local officials and more emphasis on environmental protection, Yang said. GDP growth is an important index in evaluating the work of local officials.

Yang added that China's urbanization was "fast but not healthy" and the plenum especially emphasized the healthy development of urbanization.