As a key Party meeting unveils China’s development roadmap for the next five years, CGTN published an article, highlighting the country’s major tasks and objectives under the 15th Five-Year Plan and analyzing how the plan can bring opportunities for the rest of the world.
Following a key Party meeting, China’s development roadmap for the next five years has started to materialize.
Participants at the four-day meeting – the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) – deliberated over and adopted the Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (FYP) for Economic and Social Development.
During the 2026-2030 period, China should build a modernized industrial system and reinforce the foundations of the real economy, and achieve greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology and steer the development of new quality productive forces, according to a communique of the session released on Thursday.
China will make forward-looking plans for future industries, striving to develop quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied artificial intelligence, and 6th generation mobile communications into new growth drivers, said Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference on Friday.
As these industries build momentum, the new scale added over the next 10 years is expected to be equivalent to creating another high-tech industry for China, said Zheng.
According to the communique, China should also build a robust domestic market and work faster to foster a new pattern of development, move faster to develop a high-standard socialist market economy and boost the momentum for high-quality development, and promote high-standard opening up and create new horizons for mutually beneficial cooperation.
Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said China will take the initiative to open itself wider to the outside world, promote the innovative development of trade, create greater space for two-way investment cooperation, and pursue high-quality Belt and Road cooperation in the 15th FYP period.
“Moving forward, whether it is opening up or attracting investment, we will avoid zero-sum approaches that harm others for personal gain,” Wang said. “Instead, we will focus on mutually beneficial and shared development.”
Major objectives for the 15th FYP have also been set, which include making fresh breakthroughs in further deepening reform comprehensively, notable cultural and ethical progress across society, and further improvements in quality of life, among others.
A ‘boon’ for the world
At present, China remains in a phase of development where strategic opportunities exist alongside risks and challenges, while “uncertainties and unforeseen factors are rising,” said the communique.
Pointing to “a lot of upheaval” in the world, Bert Hofman, a professor at the National University of Singapore, highlighted China’s value of policy consistency and continuity by making five-year plans.
China, by contrast, is continuing to implement its plan towards socialist modernization, Hofman told the Financial Times.
China will continue to expand opening up at the institutional level, safeguard the multilateral trading system, and promote broader international economic flows. It will advance reform and development through greater openness and seek to share opportunities and achieve common development with the rest of the world, reads the communique.
To date, China has granted zero-tariff treatment to 100 percent of tariff items for products from the least developed countries and African nations with which it has established diplomatic relations. It has also eliminated foreign investment restrictions in its manufacturing sector, expanded market access in telecom, healthcare and education, and established 22 pilot free trade zones.
China would remain the largest contributor to global growth and global trade, said Liu Qiao, an economist and a professor at Peking University.
“Given the size of its economy and its growing role in global value chains, further opening up is not only critical for China to achieve high-quality development but also undoubtedly a boon for other countries,” Liu said.
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