Q&A: What to know about five-year plan in China's success?

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- This year marks the final year of China's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), and a new plan for the country's development over the next five years will be formulated.

What exactly is a five-year plan? What role does it play in China's economic and social development? And how does it impact the country and its people? Let's explore it.

PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT

The five-year plan, also known as the five-year plan for national economic and social development, is a key guiding document for China's medium-to-long-term economic and social progress. It outlines the country's overall goals, key tasks and policy orientation across various sectors over a five-year period.

China's first five-year plan was launched in 1953, with its primary goal of achieving industrialization. Since the sixth of its kind, which was launched for the 1981-1985 period, the plan has incorporated social development goals.

Today, the five-year plan covers a broad range of fields including the economy, society, technology, ecology and culture.

Over the decades, a main theme has been consistent: transforming China into a modern socialist nation.

The national plan also serves as a guide for provincial- and city-level regions to formulate their own development plans.

PLAN OF CONSENSUS

The formulation process operates through a well-structured framework that combines the centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with extensive democratic participation.

A plenary session of the CPC Central Committee puts forward its proposals for the formulation of plan. The State Council drafts an outline for the plan, which is later reviewed and approved by the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, before being officially published and implemented.

The process usually takes years. The drafting of the current 14th Five-Year Plan, adopted in 2021, began as early as 2018.

During the entire process, public voices and experts' opinions are properly heard. Such arrangements aim to pool wisdom and experience from various fields, reflect people's expectations and reach consensus.

TANGIBLE GOALS

A most notable feature of the five-year plans is the use of quantitative indicators to set tangible targets.

In the seventh five-year plan, GDP growth was first introduced as a specific indicator for economic development. Since 2006, the plan adopted a system comprising both obligatory targets and anticipatory targets, covering both the government's responsibilities and social participation.

Obligatory targets are mainly about government commitments such as reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP, while anticipatory targets, such as GDP growth rates, represent desired development outcomes to be achieved primarily through market forces.

According to a mid-term assessment report released by the end of 2023, four of 20 major indicators in the 14th Five-Year Plan had been achieved ahead of schedule, five were progressing faster than expected, and seven were on track.

COORDINATED EFFORTS

Since its first launch, the five-year plan has been serving as a blueprint for the country's overall development, ensuring coordinated efforts across all sectors of society.

The first Five-Year Plan (1953-1957), for instance, laid China's industrial foundation via concentrated efforts to build New China's first steel production base and first auto manufacturer.

The 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) saw the establishment of the world's largest high-speed rail network in China, which has revolutionized domestic travel by significantly reducing travel time, and helped turning China into a unified market.

These achievements may not happen without the five-year plan's unique capacity to mobilize national resources and execute large-scale projects, turning long-term visions into concrete realities that shape both the nation's development trajectory and citizens' daily lives.

This planning mechanism has become both a hallmark of China's socioeconomic development and an important reference for other countries that hope to learn from China's experience. ■