China to set new 5-Year Plan

The Communist Party of China (CPC) will convene a plenary session later this month to map out the next five-year economic blueprint under the current slowdown and lay out institutional Party reform plans to guarantee a better and effective national leadership. The fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee will be held in Beijing from October 26 to 29, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. It is seen as the key step to fulfill the new Party leadership's vow to double the nation's GDP and per capita income by 2020. The announcement came at a Monday meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over by CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping. The CPC approved two revised rules on clean governance and punishments for breaking Party rules at the meeting, while continuing discussions on the 13th Five-Year Plan - to be reviewed at the upcoming session, Xinhua reported. Five-Year Plans have been drawn up since 1953 to map strategies for overall economic and social development in China, setting growth targets and defining development policies. A statement issued after the meeting said that China has made major progress in national strength and global influence, as the nation is close to accomplishing the goals set by the 12th Five-Year Plan. "As uncertainty looms over the global economy, the world will set their eyes on China's new Five-Year Plan where they seek opportunities and direction," Cai Zhiqiang, a Party School of the CPC Central Committee professor, who also participated in the drafting of the 13th Five-Year Plan, told the Global Times. Economic blueprint The 13th Five-Year Plan will work to promote people's well-being, strengthen economic construction and rule of law in the market economy, while further opening up to the outside world in all aspects, the Political Bureau said at a meeting in July. It has also vowed to continue modernizing governance and tightening up administration of the Party. "The next five years from 2016 will be epochal as it concerns strategic layout to accomplish its goals before the Party celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding," said Zhang Xixian, another professor with the Party School. The CPC was founded in 1921. In 2012, the CPC identified two goals, pledging to double the nation's GDP and per capita income by 2020 from that of 2010 and vowing that by 2050, China would become a modern socialist country that is rich, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious. Zhang told the Global Times that the main task will be promoting urbanization throughout the nation, and villages will become township-level cities. "The most challenging task is still poverty relief, as tens of millions of our people still live below the poverty line. It is especially difficult to offer aid precisely to those in need," Zhang said, adding that the better-off regions in East China must also shoulder the responsibility to find a new goal for the nation after the first one is accomplished. As China undergoes a transition from an investment-oriented economy to an innovation-oriented one, a slower economic growth is unavoidable and a growth rate of no less than 5 percent is still impressive, said Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology. Citing several experts, Economic Information, a newspaper affiliated to Xinhua, said Monday that China may cut its GDP growth target to 6.5 percent in the next five years, a further decrease from this year's goal of 7 percent. "This is all just normal fluctuation, and it can't serve as an indicator to be pessimistic about the Chinese economy. With a huge economic aggregation, a 6.5 percent growth rate also suggests an impressive economic growth, especially as the global average is less than 3 percent," an anonymous Beijing-based expert on the economy told the Global Times. Party rules Apart from a detailed policy-making process for a better-off society, analysts said that the Five-Year Plan will also include a modern system to combat corruption and guarantee the Party has an advanced and effective leadership to handle the problem under specific rules and regulations. "It is in line with the nation's modernization process to carry out institutional construction of the Party. All the reform measures also require political reform and Party construction to support the nation's development," Cai said. He added that the fifth plenary session may also issue announcements detailing punishments for some corrupt officials. Among these is Ling Jihua, a former CPC Central Committee member. He was expelled from the Party in July and was put under criminal prosecution for bribery. More than 100 officials at ministry level or above have been brought down in the anti-graft campaign since 2012, including 18 members or alternate members of the CPC Central Committee, China's top leadership, The Beijing News reported.