Target 2020

China is accelerating agricultural modernization, because grain and food supply problems are a perpetual theme in a country with a huge population. Although China has maintained bumper harvests for 10 consecutive years, agriculture is still a weak sector, with severe challenges in improving agricultural productivity, the level of modernization, food safety, rural development and farmers' income. Solutions to all of these challenges will be outlined in the 13th Five-Year Plan.

The plan also includes many other issues—environmental protection and ecological progress to name but two—which are of public concern. The NDRC is organizing experts to devise new methods and mechanisms to tackle these issues.

"There are many problems that cannot be effectively solved with the old measures taken in the past. We need to find solutions based on new institutional designs. These should all be seriously considered in the primary stage of formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan," Xu said.

The 12th Five-Year Plan has been followed for three years now, but the data concerning some economic indicators have failed to reach the scheduled targets. Will the disappointing results affect the formulation of the 13th Five-Year Plan? Xu explained that the data in the energy-saving and environmental protection sectors haven't reflected satisfactory performance. However, the NDRC and some related departments as well as local governments are ratcheting up their efforts in this field, and the fulfillment of goals for these indicators will be remarkably improved by the end of this year and into next year.

Xu was optimistic that the requirements of the 12th Five-Year Plan can be met by the end of next year, and that the setting of targets in the 13th Five-Year Plan won't be affected. He also pointed out that the requirements of the 12th Five-Year Plan in the other fields have been satisfied, and some of them have even been met ahead of schedule.

Balancing gov't and market

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee held in November 2013 put in place the framework, time table and a specific roadmap for overall reform by 2020. In this equation, the role of the market cannot be discounted and its relationship with the government should thus take the utmost priority in planning.

"The plan provides a method for the government to manage the economy, therefore how to balance the relationship between the government and the market is an important aspect that must be considered when formulating the plan," said Xu.

He added that the five-year plan for economic and social development is quite different from many other plans. It must be passed by the National People's Congress, so it shares some characteristics with legislation and carries a similar degree of authority. It even has binding power in some aspects. When formulating the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), the Chinese Government for the first time differentiated the requirements on the government and the market to achieve certain goals. For example, targets related to environmental protection, energy conservation and government public services should be reached mainly by relying on the government through allocation of public resources and the formulation of appropriate policies.

When creating the 13th Five-Year Plan, China will continue to search for the optimum balance in the relationship between the government and the market. In the fields that need the government to function, the plan needs not only outline goals and specific measures, but also strengthen the assessment of government performance. In the fields that need the market to function, the plan will enable the market to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources.

"When formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan, we will allow both the government and the market to play a better role," said Xu.

Fulfillment of the 12th Five-Year Plan

The level of economic growth has actually been better than expected. The GDP grew 9.3 percent, 7.7 percent and 7.7 percent each respective year in the 2011-13 period, all higher than the expected target of 7 percent outlined by the plan.

New progress has been achieved in economic restructuring and domestic demand has played a much bigger role in ensuring stable economic growth.

In 2013, the tertiary industry's contribution to economic growth surpassed those made by the secondary and primary industries for the first time.

The data for most of the 24 major indicators set by the plan have reached their targets as scheduled, and data concerning some indicators have even reached their targets ahead of time. However, progress has been slow with regard to some indicators, such as energy consumption intensity, carbon dioxide emission, improvement of energy structure and reduction of the emission of nitrogen oxides.

(Compiled according to the mid-term evaluation report of the 12th Five-Year Plan released by the State Council on April 10)