An official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, called for confidence at this year's Annual Meeting of the New Champions, or Summer Davos, which kicked off on Sunday, saying the Chinese economy is stable overall and moving in a positive direction.

NDRC Chairman Xu Shaoshi said the economy is operating within a reasonable range and has great growth potential, despite recent slowdowns and challenges that lie ahead in implementing the government's reform plans, particularly supply-side reforms.

"What I want to tell everyone is that all of us must have confidence in the Chinese economy," Xu said. "We have a solid material foundation, a complete industrial system, a great infrastructure network, and a market of over 1.3 billion people … that's our potential."

This year, China will cut about 280 million tons of coal capacity, which could result in the layoffs of more than 700,000 workers. China will also cut more than 45 million tons of steel capacity, which will mean another 180,000 layoffs, which Xu said will be a very complicated issue.

China has shut steel factories with a total capacity of more than 90 million tons over the past five years and plans to reduce capacity by an additional 100 million tons to 150 million tons by 2020, the Xinhua News Agency reported in early June.

"How far and how fast the Chinese economy can go forward … will depend on today's adjustments and today's reforms," Li Daokui, an economist and professor at Tsinghua University, said on the sidelines of the Summer Davos.

"In the long term, the Chinese economy has slowed and if [we] take this chance to fully adjust [the economy], it will make a greater contribution to the world economy," Li noted Sunday.

Asked about recent weakness in private investment, Xu cited multiple reasons, including dropping market demand and slow or incomplete implementation of relevant policies.

Private investment in China rose 3.9 percent year-on-year during the first five months of this year, down 1.3 percentage points from the growth rate in the January-April period, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on June 13 showed.

"The State Council has placed great importance on the issue," Xu said. "We will introduce some policies to support the growth of private investment."