Business leaders, economists on China's around-7% slowdown

In a government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang Thursday, China set the growth target at "around 7 percent" for 2015, or 0.5 percentage point lower than that of 2014. [Special coverage]

The announcement marked an end to months of guessing games among Chinese and global financial institutions over the symbolic figure, which had never been so closely watched at home and abroad over previous years.

Many analysts and economists believe that the growth target is not only the official barometer of the Chinese economy, but also sheds further light on how the Chinese leaders plan to steer the economy. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of over 10 trillion U.S. dollars in 2014, China is second only to that of the United States. ' The Chinese economy, which contributed about 30 percent to the world's total growth in 2013, has been facing notable downward pressures and slowing down to a state that is called "new normal." In 2014, the economy expanded 7.4 percent, registering its weakest annual expansion since 1990.

-- Jack Ma, executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, U.S.-listed Chinese e-commerce giant:

The growth target is lower than that of last year, but the Chinese economy is already the world's second largest in terms of size. With such a big size, we have to turn to healthier growth, instead of pursuing high-speed growth endlessly.

It is like a man's height that can't grow higher forever. When growing up, we will try to pursue more thoughts and wisdom. The Chinese economy is slowing down, but as long as we improve our business environment, people will show more understanding and support to new commercial models, and the economic growth will have a higher quality.

We have to adapt to the laws of economic and social development. China can't, and shouldn't, sit on high speed of growth in the past. We should pursue more quality growth.

-- Lei Jun, national political advisor and CEO of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc.:

China's economy used to have high speed of growth over the past years, and now we should try to control the pace. China's manufacturing sector, which suffers overcapacity, is facing a hard-won chance thanks to the mobile Internet. We should make use of the mobile Internet and upgrade the manufacturing industries. The key is to raise the quality of our products and create global brands.

Businesses related to the mobile Internet are growing rapidly, so the slowdown of China's economy has very little impact on us (Xiaomi Inc.). In the past several years, Xiaomi Inc. has maintained explosive growth. This year, I think we will still have high speed of growth. Xiaomi Inc. will also press ahead with our work in overseas market steadily.

-- Li Yanhong, national political advisor and chairman of the Chinese language search engine Baidu.Com Inc.:

In face of economic "new normal," especially the downward pressures, the Internet is set to play a significant role in shoring up China's economic development. In the past years, the Internet has exerted huge impact on traditional businesses, such as the media and retail sale. But in the coming years, the Internet will probably help spur traditional industries and improve their efficiency.

We (Baidu) see no much pressure owing to the slowdown of China's economy. There is plenty of innovation room in terms of the Internet. (Baidu's) automatic drive technology is about to debut, and we will seek cooperation with potential carmakers including German carmaker BMW. We could make more contributions to China's economy as it tries to pursue more quality growth.

-- Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, the world's biggest personal computer maker: