Xu revealed that China's commercial housing inventory had fallen for ten consecutive months, and that enterprises saw production costs cut by 1 trillion yuan last year, thanks to reduced taxation and lower costs on energy, bank interest and logistics.
"China is still a very competitive market and one of the best destinations for foreign investment," he said.
The reform, proposed by Chinese policy makers at the end of 2015 to resolve structural imbalances in the economy, has focused on five tasks: cutting industrial capacity, reducing the housing inventory, reducing leverage, lowering corporate costs and improving weak economic links.
Xu admitted that corporate debt levels are still relatively high, and the government should work to contain risks from this area this year.
But he noted that despite a relatively higher leverage ratio of non-financial enterprises, the country's total debt ratio is at a medium level among the world's major economies.
Xu said that the government's efforts in the past year had provided valuable experience for solving deeply-rooted problems in the nation's economy, and that China would embrace a new stage of economic growth.
A TOUGHER BATTLE IN 2017
But for the Chinese authorities, last year was only a start for supply-side structural reform, and they expect a tougher battle in the new year.
"We will adhere to the main theme and take supply-side structural reform to a deeper level," said Xu.
He said this year the government will set a higher goal for reducing overcapacity and is determined to shut down "zombie enterprises."
Besides the steel and coal industries, he said the Chinese government will target other sectors with serious overcapacity issues.
In the face of drastic housing price rises in economically strong cities and huge inventories of unsold houses in less developed areas, he said the the government is working on a long-term mechanism to ensure the healthy and stable development of the real estate sector.
Regulators are also looking out for potential risks brought by "irrational tendencies" amid rapid outbound investment growth and are examining irregularities in such investments, according to Xu.
Xu said both the external and internal conditions for China's economic development in 2017 remain "complicated and grim."
Uncertainty and instability in the world economy are on the rise, and although the domestic economy is stabilizing, there are still outstanding contradictions and issues, he said.
But with further structural reforms, the Chinese government has the "confidence, condition and ability" to ensure the economy operates within a reasonable range, he said.
China is looking forward to working with other countries to better facilitate world economic recovery by promoting structural reforms, globalization, trade liberalization and investment facilitation, the official said.
