New | Better, faster, stronger: China's new ambitious five-year plan aims to make the nation more efficient
The new five-year plan has laid out major targets, pushing the nation to become faster, better and stronger to boost its slowing economy
Higher quality, greater efficiency - these are China's aims for its development over the next five years as it tries to steer its economy along a more innovative path.
"We must focus on developing better quality and efficiency, based on innovation," the ruling Communist Party said after its annual policymaking meeting last week.
In a draft proposal detailing the country's next five-year plan until 2020, the party said: "We must nurture new incentives for development, optimise the allocation of the labour force, capital, land, technology and management, as well as inspire innovation … to seek new forces that drive development."
The paper, released by state-run Xinhua yesterday, was approved by the fifth plenum of the party's 18th Central Committee last Thursday.
"It's a very ambitious plan, which may reflect the present leadership's new ideas, in particular those of President Xi Jinping ," said Shen Jianguang, chief China economist with Mizuho Securities Asia. "There is a new focus on quality, innovation and 'green' development."
But innovation could not be planned as it was spontaneous by nature, Bank of Communications chief economist Hong Hao said. "Top-down government- planned innovation assumes that the government knows better than the market where future growth will be. It … may not achieve the desired results," said Hong, who is also the bank's managing director of research.
In a speech to last week's plenum, Xi, who is also the party's general secretary, said China's annual economic growth over the next five years should be at least 6.5 per cent. The target was necessary to "realise China's goal of doubling gross domestic product and per capita income by 2020 on the basis of 2010".