A little bit about the 14th five-year plan in China

IV session of the National People’s Congress of the XIII Convocation (sokr. NPC, Keith. 第十三届全国人民代表大会第四次会议) adopted the 14th five-year plan for socio-economic development (2021-2025 years), and identified long-term goals and objectives to 2035 (chin. 中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十四个五年规划和2035年远景目标纲要).

The adoption of the new five-year plan means that China is opening a new chapter in its socio-economic development. What tangible changes will occur in the life of every person living in this country? And how can we, ordinary Chinese residents, plan our future based on the plans of the Chinese government?

Chinese media often use the phrase “keywords”. What keywords does the five-year plan signal? This is the security, development and welfare of the people.

About security

How to achieve steady progress in conditions of instability around the world; development — what new opportunities will appear in the country for sustainable economic growth; welfare of the people — how will the problems that are already creating difficulties for Chinese residents be solved in the future?

Security is the main condition for normal and sustainable development. Without fundamental security, it is impossible to talk about development, including for a single resident of China.

Why has China decided to raise the issue of security right now? According to the Chinese media, at this time China is going through an important stage in development, when the first centennial task has already been successfully completed, and the fulfillment of the second centennial goal is on the agenda. That is why the so-called “good start” is crucial.

China is the only economy in the world that has achieved growth of 2.3% in the context of the global recession following the results of a difficult 2020. In the context of globalization, China has made a lot of efforts to achieve these results.

In these circumstances, China needs stay stable and compensate for omissions.

What does it mean to stay stable?

This year, China did not set clear targets for GDP growth rates. Past plans often included such clear formulations as “double GDP” or “achieve growth of 8%.” The 14th five-year plan says only “to keep the GDP within reasonable limits” (kit. “Ggdp在合理增长区”).

The Chinese media, talking about this decision of the government, say that in today’s difficult and extremely unstable times, a more flexible setting of targets is designed to reduce the burden on local governments.

This means that the era of “long—termists” – adherents of long-term investments is beginning. Because lowering the targets will lead to a tightening of monetary policy (kit. 货币紧缩). Economic problems associated with “flooding the economy with money” will be excluded. This means that the era of short-term speculation is over. China is entering an era of “long-term prudence.”

What kind of omissions are we talking about?

Of course, we are talking about omissions in the technological sphere. Currently, China is striving to keep up with the rest of the world in the field of information technology and artificial intelligence. It is the development of key technologies that comes to the fore.

To be continued…