At the beginning of the two sessions, let's talk about why this year is a "critical year" for the "14th Five-Year Plan".
There are two main annual positioning in 2024 - the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a key year to achieve the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The formulation and implementation of the five-year plan for national economic and social development is an important way for the party to govern the country. The First Five-Year Plan was launched in 1953. From the five-year plan to the five-year plan, it has gone through 71 years.
The five-year plan is closely related to the production and life of the people. In each five-year cycle, the first year is often referred to as the "beginning year", the last year is the "closing year", and the third year in the middle is the "continuity". This year marks the fourth year, and it is crucial to whether or not we can complete the goals and tasks of the past five years as scheduled.
At the end of last year, the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress heard and deliberated on the mid-term assessment report on the implementation of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the outline of the long-term goals for 2035. The "Assessment Report" pointed out that the implementation of the "Outline" has achieved "more than half of the time and more than half of the tasks", and the progress of the main target indicators is generally in line with expectations.
The 14th Five-Year Plan has six main objectives and 20 main indicators. Among them, four indicators have been achieved ahead of schedule: the urbanization rate of permanent residents, the participation rate of basic pension insurance, the proportion of surface water at or better than similar water bodies, and the comprehensive energy production capacity. Halfway through the journey, the whole process was completed, which was not easy.
For example, the "urbanization rate of permanent residents" aims to reach 65% by 2025, but it will actually reach 66 by the end of 202316%, an increase of 094 percentage points. Over the years, the urbanization rate of China's permanent population has grown steadily at an average annual rate of about 1 percentage point. Every 1 percentage point increase means that more than 10 million people will move to cities and towns for permanent residence.
The target is achieved ahead of schedule, and the pace cannot be stopped. In countries that have largely completed the urbanization process, this indicator has mostly stabilized above 80 per cent. It can be seen that China's current growth trend has the potential to continue for at least another 15 years. The first economic work conference held at the end of last year mentioned "new urbanization" three times, with special emphasis on "coordinating new urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization". Looking at this year through the two sessions, we might as well pay more attention to how to do a good job in this "co-ordination".
There are five indicators faster than expected - the growth of R&D investment in the whole society, the number of invention patents per 10,000 population, the proportion of added value of core industries in the digital economy in GDP, the number of licensed (assistant) physicians per 1,000 population, and the forest coverage rate. There's a lot to see here, too.
For example, the first three of these five items are all three of the 20 indicators in the "innovation-driven" category, highlighting the current vigorous scientific and technological innovation in China. Among them, in the "growth of R&D investment in the whole society", more than 77% came from enterprises, and more than 6% was invested in basic research. This year's National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, "new quality productivity" must be one of the focuses. This "faster than expected" trend can be further improved.
In addition, seven indicators are basically in line with expectations: GDP growth, labor productivity growth, per capita disposable income growth, surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas, average years of education for the working-age population, life expectancy per capita, and comprehensive grain production capacity. The other four indicators lagged behind expectations – lower energy consumption per unit of GDP, lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP, the proportion of days with good air quality in cities at the prefecture level and above, and the number of infants and young children under the age of 3 per 1,000 population.
Those who travel a hundred miles are half ninety, and they will overcome difficulties and move forward. In the areas where the progress has been completed ahead of schedule, faster than expected, and basically in line with expectations, we must not slack off, continue to consolidate and expand the existing results, prevent the decline or progress, and at the same time work towards a higher level. There is no need to be discouraged in the areas of indicators that are relatively lagging behind for the time being, but to work hard to improve efficiency, catch up, optimize and adjust policies, increase the intensity of tackling tough problems, and do our best to promote the completion of the planning goals.
High-quality development, there is a sprint, but also a long-distance run. At present, the preliminary study of the 15th Five-Year Plan has been launched. How well we run this stick in front of us has a profound impact on how to run the next stick.
The 14th Five-Year Plan still has two years to go, and every year is critical and every day is precious.
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