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THE NINTH FIVE-YEAR PLAN | THE 10TH FIVE-YEAR PLAN |
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The 10TH Five-Year Plan |
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II. Implementation of the 10th Five-Year Plan
Beginning from 2001, China will
implement the first five-year plan for the new century. The Proposal of
the CPC Central Committee for the Formulation of the 10th Five-Year Pla In the Report on the Outline of the 10th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development delivered at the Fourth Session of the Ninth NPC, Premier Zhu Rongji said, looking ahead at the situation at home and abroad at the beginning of the new century, the next five to 10 years will be an extremely important period for China's economic and social development. The worldwide new technology revolution is progressing rapidly with great momentum. The economic globalization trend is gaining strength. Many countries are actively restructuring their industries and the neighboring countries are accelerating their development. All this constitutes a severe challenge and provides a historic opportunity for China to strive to catch up and achieve development by leaps and bounds. Domestically, China is at a crucial juncture in economic restructuring, and reform is in a vital period. China's entry into the World Trade Organization will bring the country a number of new problems. China is facing many arduous tasks and many deep-seated problems need to be solved. All this requires China to seize the opportunity and accelerate development. At the same time, there are many favorable conditions for China's national economy to achieve rather rapid development over a fairly long period. In light of the situation and tasks facing China during the 10th Five-Year Plan period, the outline sets forth the main targets for economic and social development in the next five years as follows: To maintain a fairly rapid growth rate in the national economy, achieve noticeable success in the strategic restructuring of the economy, and make marked improvement in the quality and benefits of economic growth to lay a solid foundation for doubling the 2000 GDP by 2010; to make significant progress in establishing a modern corporate structure in State-owned enterprises, increase the soundness of the social security system, improve the socialist market economy and open wider to the outside world and strengthen cooperation with other countries; to expand avenues of employment, increase the income of urban and rural residents steadily, improve people's material and cultural standards of living, and improve ecological conservation and environmental protection; and to accelerate the development of science, technology and education, further improve the quality of the Chinese people, and achieve marked progress in improving culture and ethics, democracy and the legal system. The Outline of the 10th Five-Year Plan embodies the following major guiding principles: Making development the central theme. Stress will be placed on a balance between a high growth rate and good economic returns, striving for fairly rapid growth on the basis of improved economic returns. Sound economic growth must be based on strong market demand and good economic returns. This is a fundamental principle. Based on an overall analysis of conditions in all sectors of the economy, China has set the target for the average annual economic growth rate in the 10th Five-Year Plan period at around 7 percent. Though slightly lower than the actual growth rate in the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, it is still fairly high. Arduous efforts have to be made to attain this target through better economic performance. However, as some uncertainties exist both at home and abroad, China has to leave some leeway when defining its target. This will help various sectors focus on restructuring and improving economic returns, and also help prevent overheating of the economy and poor quality or redundant development. Concentrating on economic restructuring. The Chinese economy has reached a point where further development cannot be achieved without structural adjustments. Should the old structure and crude manner of growth remain unchanged in economic development, products will find no market, and also, it will be impossible to sustain resources and preserve the environment. It is imperative for China to adjust the economic structure in developing the economy and maintain a relatively rapid growth in structural adjustment. In the next five years, efforts should be intensified to adjust the patterns of economic development between different industries, between different regions, and between urban and rural areas, with emphasis on the industrial structure. Measures should be taken to stabilize and strengthen agriculture as the foundation of the economy, accelerate industrial reform, reorganization, upgrading and optimization, vigorously develop the service industry, promote IT for national economic and social development, and continue to reinforce the infrastructure. Making reform and opening up and technological progress the driving force. The success of both economic development and structural adjustment depends on institutional, scientific and technological innovation. In the next five years, efforts must be made to unswervingly pursue reform, open China wider to the outside world, and break down the institutional obstacles to the development of productive forces. This will provide a strong impetus for economic and social development. In addition, priority will be given to the development of science, technology and education. Efforts will be made to further implement the strategy of developing China through science and education, invigorate science and technology, train more skilled personnel, and better integrate science, technology and education with the economy. Making improvement of the people's living standards the basic starting point. Raising the people's living standards in both urban and rural areas is the basic goal of the economic development and a crucial factor for expanding domestic demand and stimulating sustained economic growth. Priority will be given to raising the people's living standards. For this purpose, measures must be taken to create more jobs, increase the income of residents, distribute income more equitably, improve the social security system, and ensure a more comfortable life for the people. Coordinating economic development with social development. China will make great efforts to improve socialist culture and ethics, democracy and the legal system, balance reform, development and stability, accelerate development of various social undertakings, and ensure social stability. Efforts should also be made to pay close attention to and solve issues in relation to population, resources and the ecological environment, take further steps to implement the strategy of sustainable development, and stimulate coordinated economic and social development. The Outline of the 10th Five-Year Plan highlights its strategic vision, broad perspectives and policy principles. It contains fewer specific targets and sets more tentative ones adjustable to structural changes. The outline focuses on key development areas and the settlement of major problems, orients efforts, and presents corresponding policies and measures. It stresses that the role of market mechanisms should be given full play in the implementation of the plan and economic levers, economic policy and legislation be further employed in the Government's macro-control. In the process of formulating the plan, more participation by all elements of society should be encouraged, thus making it a process of giving full scope to democracy, absorbing all useful ideas, and reaching agreement among all sides. |
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