"Readjustment should be a key word of China's 12th Five-year Plan," said Wang Jian, vice president of China Society of Macroeconomics. He said the country must address many challenges such as overcapacity, economic restructuring, and further expansion of domestic consumption.

Dwight Perkins, a Harvard University professor, told the seminar that China should further facilitate the role household consumption plays in GDP growth by raising per capita income and encouraging more spending rather than saving.

Perkins said China was also faced with the daunting challenge in the coming 20 years of solving housing problems for as many as 200 million rural migrant workers in cities.

A green path of development should also be the highlight in the new five-year plan, Greenwood said, noting that low-carbon economy has become a key development area globally.

He said China's future prosperity would be closely linked to the level of green economy and how it would deal with climate change issues.

China's future development plans should also focus on shared prosperity, the gap between the rich and poor, and balanced economic development, he said.

Subinay Nandy, Country Director in China of the United Nations Development Programme, said the seminar was a big improvement in China's decision-making mechanism, which was more open and transparent.

"The openness is helpful both way," Nandy said, adding that not only China can learn from advice of international agencies and think tanks, more and more developing country can also learn from China's growth model.