China's five-year plans have been effective in guiding the country's economic development, experts said as the ongoing fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee is poised to shape the direction of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
The 20th CPC Central Committee started its fourth plenary session in Beijing on Monday morning. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a work report on behalf of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and expounded on the Party leadership's draft proposals for the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for national economic and social development.
China has had 14 five-year plans which was first introduced in 1953. Following the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978, the country began developing a socialist market economy system, yet it has not abandoned the planned approach. Instead, it has reformed and refined the system to make it more effective.
"Our Five-Year-Plans have mid-term reviews and annual plans that can adjust and fine-tune in the progress so that we can adjust to new challenges in terms of domestic or global conflicts. And finally, the plan is set or formulated not in a top-down manner. The plan is going to have a top-down and bottom-up approach, basically meaning that it's going to consult experts, think tanks. It's going to consult public opinion from the Internet," said Li Lun, an assistant professor of economics at the Peking University.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, China's GDP rose from 103.5 trillion yuan (14.54 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2020 to 134.9 trillion yuan (18.95 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 5.5 percent, significantly higher than the global average of 3.9 percent over the same period.
Throughout the 2021-2025 period, China contributed approximately 30 percent annually to global economic growth, making it a key driver of world economic development and fully demonstrating the resilience and vitality of China as a major economy.
Under the 14th Five-Year Plan, efforts have shifted towards consolidating and expanding targeted poverty alleviation. Employment among people lifted out of poverty has consistently remained above 30 million, while targeted support has been provided to over 6 million individuals at risk of falling back into poverty as of July this year.
"China's record has been really remarkable, as the numbers you quote really show that China's trajectory has been incredibly rapid. It has marshaled the resources in a way that has allowed people come out of poverty. It allowed China to go from essentially a backward agrarian society to the leading edge of modern technologies. So there's a lot of success stories there," said Willion Lee, chief economist and executive director of the Milken Institute.
From 1978 to 2024, China's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 8.8 percent. China's per capital GDP has surpassed 13,000 U.S. dollars in 2024. The country has been listed in the Top 10 of the Global Innovation Index (GII).
China's five-year plans effective in guiding country's economic development: experts
