China’s economic growth is expected to exceed 6.5% in 2018, said Fan Hengshan, vice secretary general of the country’s National Development and Reform Commission.

Thanks to market and government factors, the Chinese economy will maintain a sound momentum for the next several years, Fan added.

Fan made the remarks at a forum on city development held on Nov. 18 in Beijing. “If China’s 2017 economic growth could reach 6.8 or 6.9 percent, the growth rate for 2018 will not be lower than 6.5 percent.” he noted.

He believes that China will finally become a developed country as long as it finds a solution to imbalanced development. In addition, he said that the function of government should never be underestimated for a nation’s development.