Analysis by Dong Yue
BEIJING – China has outlined the proposals of its 14th five-year plan, the latest development blueprint that sets the direction of the world’s second-largest economy.
It is finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, with its economic and technological strength leaping to a new level.
In its gradual and concrete approaches to modernization, China is expected to continuously share with the world its development opportunities to drive global growth hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising sentiment of protectionism and unilateralism, said experts.
STABLE DEVELOPMENT
This year marks the end of China’s current five-year development plan. The country is expected to cross the 100-trillion-yuan mark in its gross domestic product (GDP) and win the battle against poverty.
With 55.75 million rural residents lifted out of poverty in the past five years, China is set to meet 10 years ahead of schedule the poverty alleviation target set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Christine Bierre, editor-in-chief of France’s Nouvelle Solidarité magazine and an expert at the Schiller France Institute, said China’s remarkable achievements, especially in the areas of poverty alleviation and the Belt and Road cooperation, demonstrate the efficiency of China’s policy planning.
Ronnie Lins, director of the China-Brazil Center for Research and Business, stressed that China has made such progress thanks to its appropriate plans and feasible goals formulated in advance.
The fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded on Thursday, adopting the CPC Central Committee’s proposals for the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, which await deliberation and approval next year at the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature.
The 13th five-year plan “catalyzed China’s transformation from high-speed growth to high-quality growth, and brought science and technology to the highest national priority,” said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation.
In the view of Diaa Helmy, secretary-general of Cairo-based Egyptian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the 13th five-year plan period is a “defining moment” in the history of China.
The plan “has many achievements inside and outside China and it helps the world through its contribution to poverty reduction,” said Helmy.
BRIGHT PROSPECTS
With the goals and tasks set in the 13th five-year plan about to be accomplished, China is depicting a promising blueprint for the next five years and beyond to build a more open and modernized country.
In that period, China will speed up fostering a new development pattern where domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.
China will strive to make new strides in economic development during the period. It aims to realize sustained and healthy economic development on the basis of a marked improvement in quality and efficiency.
With new steps to be taken in reform and opening up, China will further improve its socialist market economy and basically complete the building of a high-standard market system, and form the new institutions of a higher-level open economy.
Mao Xuxin, principal economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a London-based economic think tank, said the proposals “set a practical blueprint for China’s economic growth and social development in the coming years.”
China, he noted, will speed up the transformation from high-speed growth to high-quality development.
“The 14th five-year plan will promote China from a big manufacturing country to a manufacturing and even a technology power,” said Koh Chin Yee, president of Singapore’s South Seas Society, which gathers scholars worldwide on research about Southeast Asia.
“This progress will not only promote China’s economic and social development, but will also benefit the world as a whole,” Koh said.
IMPETUS TO GLOBAL RECOVERY
A stable and consistent development plan with a pledge of further opening up by the world’s second largest economy matters to the world, which is stumbling into a recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rising sentiment of trade protectionism and unilateralism in some Western countries makes the crisis even worse.
After returning to growth after the COVID-19 outbreak, China has outlined a clear framework for its future development, injecting certainty into a world where uncertainty abounds.
In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected the global economy to contract sharply by 4.4 percent this year, while expecting China’s economy to grow by 1.9 percent for the year.
Underscoring the roles of opening up and innovation, China’s new development blueprint will significantly contribute to the global synergy toward a long-awaited recovery.
In this regard, the upcoming China International Import Expo (CIIE) demonstrates China’s willingness to share its development opportunities with the rest of the world.
Gu Qingyang, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, said against the backdrop of rising protectionism and unilateralism, the CIIE, as a state-level platform, demonstrates China’s adherence to globalization in favor of exchanges and win-win cooperation.
Chen Gang, assistant director and senior research fellow of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore, spoke highly of China’s efforts to share the benefits of its market.
“As the pandemic of the COVID-19 has impacted the world economy severely, China has recently proposed the dual circulation strategy, which is not only conducive to China’s sustainable development, but also brings the world a more attractive and vast market,” Chen said. – Xinhua
