Second, China would continue to see an improvement in labor productivity, he said.

Third, total government debt only accounted for 39.4 percent of China's gross domestic product (GDP), still low by international standards, though it holds $3.7 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, Lin said.

If China wanted to target the growth rate, certainly it needed to develop its economy according to its own competitive advantages as well as unlock domestic forces, given a deceleration in both exports and investment, the other two of the so-called "Troika" of GDP growth, in the aftermath of the latest global financial crisis, he said.

"I'm quite sure China has the ability to do that," Lin said, expressing optimism for its ongoing and long-standing progress of transformation from an export-driven to a domestic-consumption-driven economy.

Lu also told Xinhua consumption was expected to contribute increasingly to China's growth, likely occupying 40 percent of GDP in 2014.

If China achieves the growth target of 7 to 8 percent in next decade and a half, it would certainly be good for the world, Lin said.

In the meantime, he warned of some risks facing China, such as income disparity and corruption.

The third plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee last November declared China would deepen its economic reform to ensure the market would play a "decisive" role in allocating resources.

Lin said the key point was the price must be determined by supply and demand to adapt to the shift in the definition of the market's role in the economy from "basic" to "decisive".

He also said more reforms should be implemented in factor price determination to reduce factor-market distortion and rent seeking.

Lin also voiced concern over China's shadow banking, which was becoming a source of instability in China's financial system.

China Broad Capital chief economist Mingchun Sun told the forum there was likely to be some defaults in China's shadow banking sector, though a systemic implosion in next two or three years was unlikely.