The 11th Five-Year Plan: Targets, Paths and Policy Orientation

Ma Kai, Minister, National Development and Reform Commission

March 19, 2006 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning.

The Outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan has been approved by the Fourth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress that just closed. This is a significant event in China's politics and economy. The Outline fully carries out two lines of strategic thinking, namely, the Scientific Concept of Development and building a socialist harmonious society. It spells out national strategic intentions, identifies priorities of the government's agenda and reflects the common will and fundamental interests of the Chinese people. It is also an important basis on which the government will perform its functions, including economic adjustment, market regulation, social administration and public services. It is a declaration of scientific, harmonious and peaceful development, which is of great importance to China in the following five years and for the ambitious goal of building a well-off society in an all-round manner.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, the "cake" of the national economy will grow further. The national economy is expected to grow at an annual average rate of 7.5% during the period of the Five-Year Plan. By 2010, China's GDP will reach 26.1 trillion RMB and per capita GDP will amount to 19,270 RMB. Calculated at the current exchange rate, China's GDP will then total $3.2 trillion USD and per capita GDP will be $2400 USD by that time.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, the quality of economic growth will be further improved. Industrial structure will be optimized and upgraded and the proportion of the service industry will be significantly improved; enterprises will have stronger capacity of independent innovation and international competitiveness. Resources utilization efficiency will be improved considerably while energy consumption of per unit GDP will be lowered by 20%.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, the income level of urban and rural residents will be further raised. By 2010, the per capita disposable income of urban residents and the per capita net income of rural residents will reach 13,390 RMB and 4150 RMB respectively. The next five years will see newly added employment of 45 million people in urban areas and the transfer of another 45 million from rural areas.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, public services will be further improved. Public services for urban and rural residents, such as compulsory education, public health, social security, public culture, will be improved substantially both in quality and quantity. Average education for citizens will be increased to nine years. Urban citizens covered by basic pension will be increased to 233 million and the penetration rate of new rural cooperative medical care will be over 80%.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, urban and rural development will be more balanced. Noticeable progress will be made in building a socialist new countryside and the urbanization rate will be raised to 47%. The widening gaps of public services, per capita income and the living standard between urban and rural areas and between different regions will be curbed according to the principle of balancing urban and rural development and equalizing public services.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, the inhabitation environment will be further bettered. The trend of ecological and environmental degradation will be curbed preliminarily, and the total emission volume of major pollutants will be reduced by 10%. In cities, 70% of wastewater and 60% of residential garbage will be treated. The forest coverage rate is expected to reach 20%. 100 million rural residents will be provided access to safe drinking water, and 1.2 million kilometers of rural roads will be newly built and upgraded. All towns and administrative villages that have the necessary conditions will have access to highways.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, the market economy system will be further enhanced. Breakthroughs will be made in the reform and institutional building of areas such as administrative governance, state-owned enterprises, taxation, finance, science and technology, education, culture and public health. The government's capacity of market regulation and social administration will be enhanced remarkably. Opening up to the outside world and domestic development will be further balanced, and the open economy will arrive at a new level. By 2010, the total import and export volume of goods trade and service trade will hit $2.3 trillion USD and $400 billion USD respectively.

With the implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan, new progress will be made in promoting democracy, the legal system and moral and culture. The legal system will be further improved in an all-round way with an aim to build a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics. Ethical education will be strengthened so as to make fresh achievements in building a harmonious society.

To realize the above-mentioned great prospects, we should stick to the guidance of the Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thoughts of "Three Represents", adhere to the Scientific Concept of Development for the guidance of economic and social development, maintain stable and fast economic growth, improve independent innovation capacity, accelerate the transformation of economic growth mode, promote economic restructuring and balanced development of urban and rural areas, enhance the building of a harmonious society, and continue deepening reform and opening-up.

To truly move along the track of scientific development, the basic policy orientation for China's economic and social development in the 11th Five-Year Plan period will be as follows:

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