China's new five year development plan
- By Sajjad Malik
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 10, 2016
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Premier Li Keqiang delivers a government work report during the opening meeting (XINHUA) |
China's new five-year plan for development has been unveiled at a crucial stage of national economic progress. The plan's time period of 2016-20 will complete with the government timeline to transform the country into a "moderately prosperous society" by 2020. Launched on March 5 during the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, in Beijing, where hundreds of delegates from all over the country were present, the13th Five-Year Plan has set the target of over 6.5 percent growth.
One key target of the plan is to increase the share of the service sector from current 50.5 percent to 56 percent of GDP in 2020. The urban residency will be up to 60 percent of the population from 56.1 percent. To improve the fast-track movement of people, there will be 30,000 km of high-speed railways, linking 80 percent of big cities nationwide.
The international obligations like tackling pollution are also part of the new plan. The government has decided to cut carbon dioxide emission by 18 percent and demand of other major pollutants like sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen will be slashed by 10-15 percent. The five-year development plan aims to create more than 50 million new urban jobs. It will be major stimulus to tackle poverty and increase prosperity.
Another important part of the plan is to increase the spending in the research and development sector to 2.5 percent of GDP in 2020. It will bring China closer to the developed economies, which are spending a lot on research and development. In fact, it is the key sector which spearheads creation of new ideas and development of technologies.
The decision to launch the new five year plan comes when the economy of China is facing considerable pressure. Already the annual growth target has come down and the 6.5 percent growth is lowest in three decades. But it will be sufficient to double the GDP and per capita income to 2020 as compared to 2010. By the time the five year plan is completed, it is expected that China's GDP will exceed 92.7 trillion yuan or 14.2 trillion U.S. dollars from the current 67.7 trillion yuan, while per capita income to reach 12,000 U.S. dollars.
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