Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli gives a speech at China Development Forum 2015, Mar 22, 2015. [Feng Yongbin / chinadaily.com.cn]

Following are some of the highlights of Zhang's speech:

-- Development remains China's top task in the New Normal and the country will stay committed to economic development as its central task.

-- China's traditional growth is no longer sustainable in the New Normal and must improve the quality and efficiency of economic growth.

-- China's development in the New Normal is still in the important period of strategic opportunities and the country will achieve sustained and healthy growth.

The New Normal calls for new thinking and new action. Therefore, China should:

-- Deepen reform and unleash new creativity for mass entrepreneurship and innovations.

-- Strengthen innovation-driven development and foster new impetus for sustaining medium-to-high growth rate.

-- Improve spatial layout and foster new economic growth poles and economic belts.

-- Always put people first and meet their new expectation for a increasingly better life.

-- Build a sound ecology and a new modernizaion featuring harmony between human beings and nature.