Laying Out a Vision For the Future

Proposals for the 13th Five-Year Plan （2016-20） were discussed and reviewed during the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China （CPC） Central Committee convened in Beijing from October 26 to 29. A final plan will be ratified by the annual session of the National Peoples Congress， Chinas top legislature， next March.

The 13th Five-Year Plan has caught extensive attention as China is at a critical juncture in its development. Since the first Five-Year Plan was created over 60 years ago， China has transformed from a highly centralized planned economy to a market economy and from a closed or semi-closed economy to all-round opening up. The 13th Five-Year Plan is the first such plan formulated by the current leadership and the first one since the Chinese economy entered the“new normal” of slower growth.

One important goal of the plan is to ensure China builds a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. Over the next five years， the top priority will be to maintain the momentum of economic growth. Highspeed growth will come to an end， and the Chinese economy will shift gears and go through a difficult restructuring period. The economy needs to keep medium-high growth during the next five years in order to double 2010s GDP and per-capita income of rural and urban residents by 2020， and lift more than 70 million people out of poverty.

Industrial transformation and upgrading are the main economic development targets. China will focus more on the quality of economic growth. The main task will be to develop the real economy and the service sector while incorporating innovation into traditional industries.

The environment will be high on the Chinese Governments agenda. China has made great progress in building resourceconserving and eco-friendly production and consumption modes by promoting energy conservation and emission reduction from 2011 to 2015， a goal laid out in the 12th Five-Year Plan. In the next five years， it will continue to push for ecological progress by improving laws and regulations on environmental protection and strengthening punishments for problematic factors.

Just as critical， China will achieve its development goals in areas such as promoting agricultural modernization， improving peoples livelihoods and alleviating poverty.

The 13th Five-Year Plan will be a blueprint guiding the countrys social and economic development in the next five years. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee has demonstrated the ruling partys political will to advance the goals of Chinas holistic development.