He stressed developing the service industry, which consumes less energy but provides job opportunities, by lowering the threshold of market access with more policy incentives.

According to the government work report delivered by Li on March 5, China will cut steel production capacity by a total of 27 million tonnes this year, slash cement production by 42 million tonnes and shut down 50,000 small coal-fired furnaces across the country, .

"We will strengthen energy conservation and emissions reduction and impose a ceiling on total energy consumption. This year, we aim to cut energy intensity by more than 3.9 percent," Li said in the report.