The 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party
of China (CPC) concluded its Fifth Plenary Session in Beijing on
Tuesday afternoon, which examined and approved a proposal for the
formulation of the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economy and
Social Development (2006-2010).
The four-day meeting involved 191 members and 150
alternate members of the CPC Central Committee, and its Political
Bureau presided over the proceedings.
Hu Jintao,
general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, gave a working
report on behalf of the Political Bureau and Premier Wen Jiabao
explained the proposal. The new Five-Year Plan, the roadmap for
development over the next five years, will bring revolutionary
changes, according to analysts in Beijing.
From "Getting Rich First" to "Common
Prosperity"
The theory proposed by the late chief architect of
China's reforms, Deng Xiaoping, in the 1970s was that to allow some
people to get rich first will give way to "common prosperity" that
will bridge the growing gap between rich and poor and avoid
polarization of society.
A shift of emphasis toward “common prosperity” is a
historic adjustment to the pattern of five-year plans since China
changed its approach to economic and social development in the
1970s.
"It shows that the CPC will give special attention
to the construction of a balanced mechanism under a market
economy," said Hu Angang, an expert on macroeconomics at Tsinghua
University.
After the economic reforms of 1978, Deng’s
principle of allowing some regions and people to get rich first
departed from egalitarianism, but managed to energize the country,
said a Xinhua report.
More than 20 years later, GDP per capita has risen
above US$1,000 and is expected to reach US$3,000 in 2020.
But rapid economic growth has engendered new
problems.
The lowest-income families, the bottom 10 percent
of all families, own less than 2 percent of all residents' assets,
while the highest-income families, the top 10 percent, own over 40
percent, according to government statistics.
Chinese leaders have warned against extremes of
poverty and wealth, increasing unemployment and intensified social
conflict.
"Common prosperity is not an unreachable goal, but
the basic principle and pursuit of socialism," said Hu.
From "Growth Rate" to "Sustainable
Development"
The recognition that economic growth is not equal
to economic development and that growth is not the final goal of
development, will be included in the 11th Five-Year Plan for the
first time, said analysts.
Top leaders have criticized old concepts of
economic growth many times, saying that "economic development at
the center" does not mean "with speed at the center."
Blind pursuit of economic growth has led to blind
investment, damage to the environment and false statistics. Leaders
are worried that without changing China's concept of growth, the
economy might develop an unbalanced structure with a lack of
driving power.
In the 11th Five-Year Plan, economic growth will be
defined as "serving the people to improve life quality," said
analysts.
"A prediction can be made that in the next five
years China will pursue growth in a fair, balanced and sustainable
way," said Tang Min, chief economist at the Asian Development
Bank's China office.
China will control the use of foreign investment in
the 11th Five-Year Plan period, said experts.
According to government figures, foreign trade
accounts for over 70 percent of China's economy. Frequent trade
frictions have caused huge costs to the economy.
China has become a major consumer of energy
resources in the world. International energy institutions predict
that from 2002 to 2030 around 21 percent of the world's new demand
for energy resources will come from China. In 2004, nearly 50
percent of the petroleum used in China was imported.
China will try to change its heavy reliance on
foreign investment and resources to secure its national economy in
the next five years, said analysts.
Favorable to Social Services
The new five-year plan will bolster social services
to deal with the imbalances in economic and social development,
said analysts.
China's top leaders stressed that it has become
urgent to solve the problem of strong economic growth accompanied
by weak social development.
The problem of social security is particularly
serious in the countryside, where the medical care system and
welfare are extremely weak.
During the period from 1993 to 2003, the number of
people with no access to medical insurance increased from 900
million to one billion, from 67.8 percent to 80.7 percent. The
number in urban areas rose from 96.53 million to 300 million.
"In the next five years, China will place more
emphasis on science and technology, education and health care in
policy and investment," said Ding Yuanzhu, researcher at the
National Development and Reform Commission’s Economic and Social
Development Research Institute.
All rural children are expected to enjoy nine years
of free education by 2010, which will reduce farmers' economic
burden by 100 billion yuan (US$12.37 billion) every year, analysts
said.
"The poor and the weak will get more protection and
have greater access to social welfare," said Ding.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2005)