China will aim to achieve significant progress in high-quality development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), highlighting the development of human capital development and new quality productive forces, experts in Beijing said.
The fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded on Thursday in Beijing, deliberated over and adopted the Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development.
The Central Committee set the following major objectives for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, putting significant achievements in high-quality development first, according to a communique of the session.
"In the 15th Five-Year Plan period, a key goal will be to achieve significant progress in high-quality development. This goal aligns with the main task of Chinese modernization, providing a clear direction guided by specific objectives," said Dong Yu, executive deputy dean of the China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University.
The communique also stressed efforts to improve living standards while increasing consumer spending and coordinate investments in physical assets and human capital.
Zhu Min, a member of the Senior Expert Advisory Committee of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said that this recommendation stems from the current realities of the country's economic and demographic landscapes.
"Domestic demand depends on consumer spending, so investing in people not only enables them to consume but also helps them develop into valuable human capital. As the country has entered a stage of 'engineer dividend,' nurturing human capital is particularly important. Therefore, the people-centered approach to demand expansion and human capital development is an important new highlight in the communique," said Zhu.
This Five-Year Plan will come as China prepares to reshape its high-tech industry over the next decade. According to Zhu, this goal is made feasible by key strengths in the country's economic system at present.
"The distinctive feature of the Chinese economy lies in its real economy, manufacturing, and industries. As China advances in technology, the challenge is to integrate these elements to create new industries with new quality productive forces. This represents the future of the Chinese economy. By establishing our own industrial chain, we can reshape the global industrial chain structure, fundamentally changing the landscape of the world economy and industry," he said.
China to focus heavily on high-quality development in coming 5 years: experts
