China's next targets: Shifting to quality
Yuba Nath Lamsal
The annual session of the National People\'s Congress (NPC), China\'s parliament, was held in Beijing\'s Great Hall of the Peoples on March 3-14. The NPC, the supreme political organ of the People\'s Republic of China, concluded its session adopting plethora of resolutions on current national, regional and global issues as well as China\'s vision for the next five years. It has adopted, among other key decisions, a new five-year plan that has aimed at maintaining sustainable economic development, hitting mass poverty on its roots, raising people\'s living standard, reducing income disparities, curbing inflation and building more meaningful and cooperative partnership with the global community. The 118-page blueprint for China\'s development for the next half decade was submitted to the National People\'s Congress for a debate and deliberation among 2979 deputies representing a cross section of the society and country\'s different regions. This five-year plan, which covers the period between 2011 and 2015, aims to shift the country from simply being a world\'s cheap labour market and manufacturer of economical items into a moderately prosperous society that ensures more qualitative change in the life of the Chinese people. Once this vision was put into practice and goal achieved as per the vision, China would no longer remain a country of cheap labour and cheap goods. It would be known in the world as a country of qualitative and most productive human resource with quality and branded products. That means China is now more focused on striving for a more varied economic structure with more equitable development and distribution system. Raising economic condition of the people has been a paramount concern of the Chinese government. It has, to a large extent, been successful in reducing poverty and maintaining a good rate of economic development for the last three decades ever since China adopted economic reforms way back in 1978, thanks largely to the vision and determination of China\'s late pragmatist leader Deng Xiao Ping. When China initiated reforms, it was a country of world\'s largest number of poor people. The leaders that came to power since 1978 have followed the course initiated by Deng and have made considerable progress in their march towards economic development. The economic reforms which China describes as socialist market economic policy, has done some miracles in transforming the country into a global economic and military power. The new five year plan that was just endorsed by the National People\'s Congress aims not only at giving continuity to its previous policies and consolidating them to improve the life of the Chinese people but also bringing some newer innovatives so that China would have different image in the global arena. Even the World Bank has hailed China\'s success in poverty alleviation and it has urged other least developed countries in the world to follow Chinese model of development in general and poverty alleviation scheme in particular. The new five year plan, which is better understood as the guideline for pushing China\'s economic growth target in a more moderate manner, mainly focuses on three major points. Firstly and also most fundamentally, China has shifted its priority to accelerating sustainable economic growth and ensuring higher quality. Now China\'s GDP is projected to rise at only 7 per cent a year, down from earlier two digit growth, because the government has shifted its priority from quantitative growth to qualitative growth. In the period of the last five year plan, Chinese economy had grown by 11.2 per cent annually. Despite a record GDP growth and economic miracle in the past, China was still confronted with mass poverty and low income of its people. Chinese leadership and authorities are worried about the growing income gap between the people living in cities and those living in the hinterland. Now the China wants to narrow this income gap and inequality to ensure more equitable society with moderate income and dignified life. The goal of China for the next five year is to emerge as a country with moderate income enabling its people to live a dignified life. With its increased economic strength, Beijing wants to have better clout both at home and abroad. For this, China plans to invest more on infrastructure building both in rural and urban areas as well as creating more income generating activities in the villages. Under this scheme, the People\'s Republic of China plans to build at least ten million low cost houses in the rural areas so that the people in the hinterland would have better housing facilities. Secondly, the plan strengthens efforts to adjust China\'s energy usage and protect the environment. Some of the specific targets include: reducing the energy intensity of the economy by 16 per cent, increasing the share of energy from non-fossil-fuel sources to 11 per cent, and reducing the carbon intensity by 17 per cent by 2015. In the past, too, China had set the target of reducing energy use by 20 per cent and it had been close to the target. Buoyant by the series of success in economic and social development fronts as well as environment protection, the new five year plan has set a range of targets to improve the quality of China\'s air, water, and soil, both urban and rural. The authorities are of the view that these targets are achievable and by the end of 2015, the air, water, and soil quality of China\'s urban areas would be quite better than that of today. Environmentally, China would be better off in 2015 probably better than any other Asian economies. The third point that the five year plan has envisaged is the effort to adopt a holistic and more coordinated approach for greater attention to social needs and social justice. In the past, Beijing had accorded priority to speedy growth enabling the country to become world\'s second largest economy. With already surpassing Japan to become the world\'s second largest economy and presently eying to beat the United States of America, the world\'s largest economy, in a few years, China now has accorded its top most priority to raise living condition of its citizens so that they can enjoy modest life at par with some of the western developed countries. Given the huge population of the poor, this seems to be an uphill task in the near future. However, the way Beijing is moving ahead in economic and developmental fronts, the target does not seems to be unrealistic. It is becoming clearer that China\'s march towards prosperity would be a reality sooner than later. This is one of the key targets that the new five year plan has envisaged for which Beijing would be successful. Since the five year plan has been endorsed by the National People\'s Congress, the targets and goals are less likely to fail as all the previous targets have been achieved successfully. In the next decade, China is, therefore, expected not only to be the world\'s strong economic powerhouse but also a country of people with moderate income and dignified life. At a time when the entire world including the western economies suffered heavily and severely due to global financial meltdown, China remained largely untouched from this crisis not because it is aloof from the developments in the rest of the world but because of its cautious and pragmatist policies as well as the will and ability of the leadership to tackle the crisis more wisely. As a result, China continued to grow and prosper even when the rest of the world faced serious economic crisis due to recession. China is unstoppable in its march for development and modernization, thanks to its visionary and wise leadership and determined and hardworking people. It is a good news not only for the Chinese but also for all the Nepalese people because Nepal, as a close neighbor, can learn and benefit a lot from China\'s experiences and success. The new five-year plan, thus, is a shift to quality that China envisages to achieve for the better living condition and qualitative growth of its economy.
The annual session of the National People\'s Congress (NPC), China\'s parliament, was held in Beijing\'s Great Hall of the Peoples on March 3-14. The NPC, the supreme political organ of the People\'s Republic of China, concluded its session adopting plethora of resolutions on current national, regional and global issues as well as China\'s vision for the next five years. It has adopted, among other key decisions, a new five-year plan that has aimed at maintaining sustainable economic development, hitting mass poverty on its roots, raising people\'s living standard, reducing income disparities, curbing inflation and building more meaningful and cooperative partnership with the global community. The 118-page blueprint for China\'s development for the next half decade was submitted to the National People\'s Congress for a debate and deliberation among 2979 deputies representing a cross section of the society and country\'s different regions. This five-year plan, which covers the period between 2011 and 2015, aims to shift the country from simply being a world\'s cheap labour market and manufacturer of economical items into a moderately prosperous society that ensures more qualitative change in the life of the Chinese people. Once this vision was put into practice and goal achieved as per the vision, China would no longer remain a country of cheap labour and cheap goods. It would be known in the world as a country of qualitative and most productive human resource with quality and branded products. That means China is now more focused on striving for a more varied economic structure with more equitable development and distribution system. Raising economic condition of the people has been a paramount concern of the Chinese government. It has, to a large extent, been successful in reducing poverty and maintaining a good rate of economic development for the last three decades ever since China adopted economic reforms way back in 1978, thanks largely to the vision and determination of China\'s late pragmatist leader Deng Xiao Ping. When China initiated reforms, it was a country of world\'s largest number of poor people. The leaders that came to power since 1978 have followed the course initiated by Deng and have made considerable progress in their march towards economic development. The economic reforms which China describes as socialist market economic policy, has done some miracles in transforming the country into a global economic and military power. The new five year plan that was just endorsed by the National People\'s Congress aims not only at giving continuity to its previous policies and consolidating them to improve the life of the Chinese people but also bringing some newer innovatives so that China would have different image in the global arena. Even the World Bank has hailed China\'s success in poverty alleviation and it has urged other least developed countries in the world to follow Chinese model of development in general and poverty alleviation scheme in particular. The new five year plan, which is better understood as the guideline for pushing China\'s economic growth target in a more moderate manner, mainly focuses on three major points. Firstly and also most fundamentally, China has shifted its priority to accelerating sustainable economic growth and ensuring higher quality. Now China\'s GDP is projected to rise at only 7 per cent a year, down from earlier two digit growth, because the government has shifted its priority from quantitative growth to qualitative growth. In the period of the last five year plan, Chinese economy had grown by 11.2 per cent annually. Despite a record GDP growth and economic miracle in the past, China was still confronted with mass poverty and low income of its people. Chinese leadership and authorities are worried about the growing income gap between the people living in cities and those living in the hinterland. Now the China wants to narrow this income gap and inequality to ensure more equitable society with moderate income and dignified life. The goal of China for the next five year is to emerge as a country with moderate income enabling its people to live a dignified life. With its increased economic strength, Beijing wants to have better clout both at home and abroad. For this, China plans to invest more on infrastructure building both in rural and urban areas as well as creating more income generating activities in the villages. Under this scheme, the People\'s Republic of China plans to build at least ten million low cost houses in the rural areas so that the people in the hinterland would have better housing facilities. Secondly, the plan strengthens efforts to adjust China\'s energy usage and protect the environment. Some of the specific targets include: reducing the energy intensity of the economy by 16 per cent, increasing the share of energy from non-fossil-fuel sources to 11 per cent, and reducing the carbon intensity by 17 per cent by 2015. In the past, too, China had set the target of reducing energy use by 20 per cent and it had been close to the target. Buoyant by the series of success in economic and social development fronts as well as environment protection, the new five year plan has set a range of targets to improve the quality of China\'s air, water, and soil, both urban and rural. The authorities are of the view that these targets are achievable and by the end of 2015, the air, water, and soil quality of China\'s urban areas would be quite better than that of today. Environmentally, China would be better off in 2015 probably better than any other Asian economies. The third point that the five year plan has envisaged is the effort to adopt a holistic and more coordinated approach for greater attention to social needs and social justice. In the past, Beijing had accorded priority to speedy growth enabling the country to become world\'s second largest economy. With already surpassing Japan to become the world\'s second largest economy and presently eying to beat the United States of America, the world\'s largest economy, in a few years, China now has accorded its top most priority to raise living condition of its citizens so that they can enjoy modest life at par with some of the western developed countries. Given the huge population of the poor, this seems to be an uphill task in the near future. However, the way Beijing is moving ahead in economic and developmental fronts, the target does not seems to be unrealistic. It is becoming clearer that China\'s march towards prosperity would be a reality sooner than later. This is one of the key targets that the new five year plan has envisaged for which Beijing would be successful. Since the five year plan has been endorsed by the National People\'s Congress, the targets and goals are less likely to fail as all the previous targets have been achieved successfully. In the next decade, China is, therefore, expected not only to be the world\'s strong economic powerhouse but also a country of people with moderate income and dignified life. At a time when the entire world including the western economies suffered heavily and severely due to global financial meltdown, China remained largely untouched from this crisis not because it is aloof from the developments in the rest of the world but because of its cautious and pragmatist policies as well as the will and ability of the leadership to tackle the crisis more wisely. As a result, China continued to grow and prosper even when the rest of the world faced serious economic crisis due to recession. China is unstoppable in its march for development and modernization, thanks to its visionary and wise leadership and determined and hardworking people. It is a good news not only for the Chinese but also for all the Nepalese people because Nepal, as a close neighbor, can learn and benefit a lot from China\'s experiences and success. The new five-year plan, thus, is a shift to quality that China envisages to achieve for the better living condition and qualitative growth of its economy.
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