（Written by Dulyapaween Kronsaeng / Translated by Xie Zongming）“From the 13th to the 14th Five-Year Plan, high-quality development will be the theme of China’s economic and social development,” said Dr. Li Renliang, who comes from the National Institute of Development Administration and Graduate School of Social and Environmental Development in the interview with the reporter from China-Thailand Panorama.
No clear goal of economic growth has been set in the 14th Five-Year Plan, which is the first time in the history. China no longer pursues the simple growth in number. Instead, China’s economy has been transitioning from the phase of rapid growth to the stage of high-quality development. Meanwhile, a 6% growth has been set as the goal for the economy in 2021 — a relatively high growth rate for China, the world’s second largest economy.
“High-quality development has been emphasized. According to the 14th Five-Year Plan, priority is no longer the construction of infrastructure but investment in technological innovation and improvement on education, public health, and quality of life,” said Dr. Li.
The technological innovation in the 14th Five-Year Plan mainly includes 4 major strategies. The first one is to enhance the national strategic technological power, constructing a ground-based monitoring network for the space environment, seabed scientific monitoring network and ground simulator for the space environment, etc. The second strategy is to develop world-facing cutting-edge technology such as building the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). The third is to commercialize scientific and technological outcomes such as the High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) and the efficient low carbon gas turbine, etc. The last one is improving people’s well-being through technologies in medical research, cross-scale biomedical science, phenotypic study on the heredity of animal models and Seismological Science, etc.
“In the past, China did well in economic expansion and gained considerable economic achievement, which is like developing from 1 to 10. Now, China is off to a new stage. It is getting rid of its dependence on foreign countries in key fields like silicon chips and semi-conductor technology, breaking the technology barrier, which is like undergoing the process of from ‘0 to 1’ breakthrough,” said Dr. Li.
It is mentioned in the 14th Five-Year Plan that the growth rate of budget in research and development will be 7% on a year-on-year basis, which is quite high. This is likely to further promote the nation’s innovation, along with an increasing number of patent applications. According to the statistics, the number of invention patents per 10,000 people is likely to reach 12 by 2025, increased from 6.3 in 2020.
Meanwhile, China still lays stress on the digital economy, developing AI technology and telecommunication, expanding the scale of the digital economy and increasing its ratio in China’s economic structure.
For social development, the 14th Five-Year Plan attaches importance to improving people’s life quality, making the actual growth rate of net income per capita approximately in accordance with the growth rate of GDP. The key measurement is to keep the unemployment rate under 5.5% by 2025.
The average length of schooling for the working-age population will increase from 10.8 years in 2020 to 11.3 years in 2025, signifying better education for Chinese citizens.
As for people’s well-being, the number of licensed (assistant) physicians per 1000 people is 2.9 in 2020 with a goal to increase to 3.2 by 2025. The basic old-age insurance participation rate is to increase from 91% in 2020 to 95% by 2025. Aside from these, the average life expectancy is to be 78.3 in 2025, slightly higher than the 77.3 in 2020.
For eco-development, by 2025, energy consumption per unit of GDP and emission of carbon dioxide will respectively decrease by 13.5% and 18%. The nationwide rate of forest cover will reach 24.1%.
According to Dr. Li, the 14th Five-Year Plan demonstrated China’s determination to promote high-quality development in areas like economy, technology, eco-system, environment, innovation, education and people’s well-being, etc., all of which follows the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 and conducive to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the mid-century.
China’s economic growth will bring significant opportunities to ASEAN countries including hailand. With China’s economy growing larger and the consumption growing higher, agricultural products like fruit from Thailand will have more opportunities to enter the Chinese market.
With the economic expansion, China prefers to enhance trade and investment with its ASEAN neighbors over western countries.
As one of the leaders of world technology, products from China keep projecting their influence to ASEAN countries like Thailand and keep expanding overseas market and increasing overseas investment. China has abundant funds and research ability. Recently, China’s automobile giant, Great Wall Motor and MG of Shanghai Motor have entered the Thai market. A developing, prosperous China will bring more opportunities to the world.
Source: China-Thailand Panorama
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