HACIA EL "15 PLAN QUINQUENAL": FORTALECER EL SISTEMA
INSTITUCIONAL NACIONAL DE PLANIFICACIÓN DEL DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO Y SOCIAL
I
Zhejiang Development &
Planning Institute, Hangzhou, China
✉janellin520@126.com; zhangbw0601@163.com
* Corresponding author: zhangbw0601@163.com
JEL
Classification: O21, P11, P22
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15332026
Received: 01/04/2025
Accepted: 25/04/2025
Abstract
Development planning plays an important role in the construction
of the national governance system. 2025 is the year when the 14th Five-Year
Plan ends and the year when the Tenth Five-Year Plan is laid out. Facing the
task of high-quality preparation of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, we must deeply
understand the position of development planning in the national governance
system, and realize its important role in governing the country, leading
economic and social development, and solving stage difficulties. The key point
is to grasp the interaction logic between development planning and strategy,
policy and other planning, enhance the authority, standardization, and
conductivity of development planning through legislative means, theoretical
research, and institutional mechanism construction, and accelerate the improvement
of the national economic and social development planning system.
Keywords: development planning, strategic
y policy mechanism, five-year plan, national governance system.
Resumen
La
planificación del desarrollo desempeña un papel importante en la construcción
del sistema de gobernanza nacional, y el año 2025 es el año de finalización del
Plan Quinquenal 14 y también es el año de la planificación del Plan Quinquenal
15. La tarea de la preparación de un plan quinquenal de alta calidad requiere
una comprensión profunda de la posición de la planificación del desarrollo en
el sistema de gobernanza del Estado y su importante papel en la gobernanza del
país, la dirección del desarrollo económico y social y la solución de las
dificultades de etapa. La atención se centra en comprender bien la lógica de la
interacción entre la planificación del desarrollo y la estrategia, las
políticas y otros planes, fortalecer la autoridad, la regulación y la
conductividad de la planificación del desarrollo a través de instrumentos
legislativos, estudios teóricos y construcción de mecanismos institucionales, y
acelerar el perfeccionamiento del sistema nacional de planificación del
desarrollo económico y social.
Palabras clave: planificación del desarrollo,
estrategias y mecanismos de políticas de desarrollo. plan quinquenal, sistema de gobernanza
nacional,
Development planning is an important way for the
Communist Party of China (CPC) to govern the country. From a cognitive point of
view, the development plan is formulated according to the five-year plan
proposal of the Party Committee, which shows the party's ruling philosophy and
strategy in an integrated way, deploys the overall plan and long-term plan, and
is a comprehensive strategic plan to lead economic and social development. From
the implementation point of view, development planning is an important means
for the government to strengthen and improve macro-control, and it forms an
effective carrier of strategic proposition and an important bridge for policy
implementation from the aspects of ideas, objectives, tasks, and implementation
paths.
From the operational point of view, development
planning is a powerful tool that can affect the whole body. Organizing various
undertakings and work of economic and social development with a strategic
height and around the development proposition of the party and the government
is an important embodiment of integrating resource elements to play a leading
role and an important basis for coordinating the forces of all parties.
In the past, the research focused evaluating of the
specific work level such as the preparation and implementation of development
planning. It lacked the research on strengthening the strategic guidance of
development planning from the institutional mechanism level. Chinese President
Xi Jinping emphasized at the second plenary session of the Third Plenary
Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that it
is necessary to summarize and evaluate the implementation of the "14th
Five-Year Plan" and effectively carry out the preliminary planning of the
"15th Five-Year Plan"1.
The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further
Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and Promoting Chinese-style
Modernization" reviewed and passed by the Third Plenary Session of the
20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposes to "give
full play to the strategic guiding role of the national development plan"
and "improve the national economic and social development plan
system."3
By deeply analyzing the
connotation and function of development planning, this paper explores how to
deal with the relationship between development planning and development
strategy, policy documents, and other kinds of planning, to improve the
planning system and mechanism, ensure the continuity and stability of national
strategy, and provide strong support for the smooth realization of the grand
blueprint of modernization.
This article discusses the
characteristics of the preparation of the 15th Five-Year Plan in the People's
Republic of China, highlighting that high-quality development requires a deep
understanding of comprehensive development planning within the state and
national governance system in addressing the challenges of the socialist
construction stage.
Deeply understanding the
strategic significance of development planning
Development
planning is an important way for the Party to govern the country
Chinese President Xi Jinping
pointed out that "preparing and implementing the five-year plan for
national economic and social development is an important way for our party to
govern the country."2 Chinese government has made systematic
arrangements for giving full play to the strategic guiding role of national
development planning and improving the system of national economic and social
development planning.3
Using development plans to
coordinate the deployment of various undertakings and work in economic and
social development is an important manifestation of the driving role of
resource elements. The practice has proved that my country's 14 Five-Year Plans
concentrate on the strategic intentions and medium- and long-term development
goals of the Party and the country, lead the whole society to move towards the
established strategic goals, and effectively promote the development of the
economy and society.
Development
planning is the general program that leads economic and social development
The development plan ranks at
the top of my country's planning system, coordinates and deploys key tasks in
various fields, guides the detailed implementation of other plans, and provides
an important basis for the government to perform its functions such as economic
regulation, market supervision, social management, public services, and
ecological environment protection.
In March 2021, the National
People's Congress reviewed and passed the "14th Five-Year Plan" and
the Outline of the 2035 Vision Goals, which clearly stated that the "14th
Five-Year Plan" "is a grand blueprint for my country to embark on a
new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country and a common
action program for people of all ethnic groups across the country." As a
strategic, forward-looking, and oriented public policy, development planning
plays an irreplaceable role in building development consensus, leading the
development direction, allocating public resources, and achieving strategic
goals.
Development
planning is the phased deployment of the socialist modernization strategy
during the planning period and is an important guide for coordinating the
resolution of difficulties in progress and ensuring and improving people's
livelihood
Chinese President Xi Jinping
pointed out that "from the first five-year plan to the fourteenth
five-year plan, the consistent theme is to build our country into a socialist
modern country."4 Looking back on history, the focus of the
"First Five" plan is to give priority to the development of heavy
industry. The "Sixth Five-Year Plan" began to place the liberation
and development of productivity in a prominent position, and added the content
of social development.
The "13th Five-Year
Plan" proposed to implement the new development concept, and the
"14th Five-Year Plan" proposed to march toward the second centenary
goal. It can be said that the evolution of my country's development plan is a
process of constantly summarizing results, analyzing problems in economic and
social development, constantly grasping and applying laws, and optimizing
development ideas, guiding and improving decision-making guidance in keeping
with the times.
Our country has solved the
problem of food and clothing, achieved a comprehensive well-off society, and
continued to create good conditions for common prosperity, fully demonstrating
that the development plan is closely related to the Party's governing philosophy
and is highly consistent with its fundamental position of development
Accurately grasping the three
relationships in development planning
Development
planning is a plan that reflects development strategy
Chinese President Xi Jinping
pointed out that "better play the strategic guiding role of the national
development plan."2 The report of the 20th National Congress of
the Communist Party of China has clearly defined the strategic arrangement of
building a socialist modernization power in an all-round way, and the
"Tenth Five-Year Plan" period is a crucial period connecting the
preceding with the following. From a strategic perspective, the 15th Five-Year
Plan should anchor the strategic direction of Chinese-style modernization, grasp
the overall layout requirements of "five-in-one", clarify the goals
and requirements for breaking through key problems and institutional obstacles,
achieve the strategic goals of the 15th Five-Year Plan and the long-term goals
for 2035, and form an overall program for striving for Chinese-style
modernization.
From the perspective of
strategic deployment, the 15th Five-Year Plan further tests the scientificity and sustainability of strategy and tactics.
These five years are the key five years to cope with the century-old changes
and shape strategic advantages. The uncertainties and unstable factors faced by
China's development are increasing. It is necessary to deeply analyze the
situation variables, grasp the direction of the law, and even more need to
study the unchanging underlying logic, and enhance strategic strength.
These five years are crucial for
China's transformation, upgrading, and innovation. The development pressure and
competitive challenges faced by China are increasing. It is necessary to anchor
the main direction of scientific and technological innovation, industrial
upgrading, and social construction, and carry out the architectural design of
"four beams and eight pillars" from the height of overall global
development.
From the perspective of
strategic landing, the Tenth Five-Year Plan is an important plan to accelerate
high-quality development and form a strong endogenous power. It is necessary to
effectively promote the integration of strategic layout, open up new fields and
new tracks, shape new kinetic energy and new advantages, and firmly grasp the
strategic initiative in the fields of making industries stronger and bigger,
releasing investment and consumption potential, tackling key problems in
market-oriented reform, institutional openness and win-win, deep integration of
urban and rural areas, and harmonious and prosperous humanities and ecology.
Development
planning is a plan that guides macroeconomic policies
The Third Plenary Session of the
20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed: "To
promote the coordinated efforts of fiscal, monetary, industrial, price and
employment policies around the implementation of national development plans and
major strategies, and optimize the allocation of various incremental resources
and the adjustment of existing structures."3 Development plans
serve as the fundamental basis for the research and implementation of various
policies during the planning period.
It is necessary to strengthen
the guidance of development plans on macro policies based on the goals and
tasks set out in the development plans and to make overall arrangements for the
timing, intensity, and pace of policy introduction in line with the implementation
of strategic plans. To implement this requirement, it is necessary to improve
the coordination and interaction mechanism between development plans and
macro-control measures, unify the direction of various policy tools to the
strategic deployment of development plans, and promote the coordinated efforts
of macro policies and strategic guidance.
For instance, industrial
policies should focus on the development orientation and structural adjustment
direction determined by development plans, highlighting functionality and
incentives, and reasonably guiding market expectations and the behavior of market
entities; science and technology policies should focus on the requirements for
cultivating innovation elements and carriers set out in development plans, and
guide strategic scientific and technological forces and high-level talents to
accelerate their aggregation; regional policies should focus on the major
strategic arrangements and spatial pattern optimization directions determined
by development plans, and promote the formation of a regional coordinated
development pattern with effective constraints on the main functions, orderly
and free flow of elements, equal basic public services, and sustainable
resource and environmental capacity.
At the same time, it is
necessary to strengthen the coordinated support and guarantee of public
resource allocation. Macro policies convey the strategic orientation of
development plans and coordinate the direction and focus of resource and
element allocation. Under policy regulation, public resource allocation should
be subordinate to and serve the direction of public policies, thereby
strengthening the implementation guarantee of development plans through fiscal
budgets, government investment, land supply, etc.
For example, fiscal budgets and
medium-term fiscal plans should be coordinated and connected with development
plans to ensure the realization of development plan goals through the overall
allocation of financial resources; credit policies should guide and encourage
banking financial institutions to focus on supporting key areas and weak links
clearly identified in development plans; land policies should actively support
major projects determined by development plans, adhering to the principle that
projects follow plans, funds and elements follow projects, and supervision
follows projects and funds, to ensure the smooth implementation of projects.
The
development plan is a plan that oversees other plans such as national land
space planning, special planning, and regional planning
The Third Plenary Session of the
20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out:
"improve the national economic and social development planning system,
strengthen the implementation mechanism of planning convergence, give play to
the strategic guiding role of national development planning, strengthen the
basic role of land and space planning, and enhance the supporting role of
special planning and regional planning implementation."3
Development plans need to be specifically implemented and carried out through
other plans. Special plans should be detailed in the "vertical"
aspect, regional plans should be deepened in the "horizontal" aspect,
and territorial spatial planning should provide guarantees in the "territorial"
aspect.
On the one hand, the guaranteed
role of territorial spatial planning should be strengthened. In the strategic
planning and deployment of development plans, it is objectively necessary to
form a strategic framework and its spatial arrangement, propose the direction
for optimizing the pattern of spatial development and protection, and put
forward the key points for coordinated interaction among regions, leaving
interfaces for territorial spatial planning. Based on this premise, territorial
spatial planning should focus more on space when being compiled, enhance the
spatial foundation support for economic and social development, and mainly
guarantee the implementation of major strategic tasks and major projects
determined by development plans.
Therefore, the development
planning should guide the land space planning to strengthen the space guarantee
according to the development strategy, promote the scientific layout of
production, living and ecological space in the land space planning, and promote
the formation of a land space system with complementary advantages and
high-quality development. On the other hand, the supporting role of special and
regional plans should be enhanced. In terms of planning content, development
plans construct the main goals and tasks of economic and social development,
and make development deployments for key areas and regions, guiding special and
regional plans to further break down and support implementation.
For example, in areas such as
scientific and technological innovation, infrastructure, green ecology, and
people's livelihood security, corresponding special plans should concentrate
efforts to deepen breakthroughs and extend and refine through specific roadmaps;
for key regions such as metropolitan areas, urban agglomerations, and
cross-basin areas, regional plans should implement major regional strategies
and regional coordinated development strategies, further study and breakthrough
regional divisions, and coordinate and solve major cross-administrative region
issues, promoting the deepening implementation of regional strategies and the
integration and interaction among regions through common goals and paths of
integration and coordination.
Making
development planning more authoritative, standardized, and conductive
Chinese President Xi Jinping
pointed out that "planning science is the biggest benefit, planning
mistakes are the biggest waste, and planning tossing is the biggest
taboo".5 To promote the research and compilation of development
planning, should pay attention to the use of legal thinking, scientific
thinking, and systematic thinking, improve the authority, standardization, and
conductivity of development planning, better strengthen the strategic guiding
role of development planning, maintain the continuity and stability of national
strategy, and provide strong support for the smooth realization of the grand
blueprint of modernization.
Development
planning makes more authoritative
The rule of law is an important
guarantee for Chinese-style modernization. The development plan has gradually
changed from a mandatory plan to an important institutional norm that clarifies
the central government's strategic intent, clarifies the government's work
priorities, and guides and standardizes the behavior of market entities. As the
status of the plan continues to rise, it is necessary to define relevant
institutional provisions through legislation and strengthen authoritative
guidance. The formulation and implementation of plans in accordance with the
law are important supports for the effective implementation of development
plans and the authoritative norms of major strategies.
At present, China is actively
promoting the legislation of development planning, and some provinces have
successively issued provincial development planning regulations in order to
strengthen the construction of the province's planning system by legal means
and strengthen the standardized management of planning.
Development
planning makes more standardized
Standardizing development
planning methods and solving problems such as insufficient systematic strategic
planning, insufficient combination of virtual and real, and insufficient
detailed technical support are important prerequisites for high-level and high-standard
planning. It is necessary to actively promote technical research on development
planning preparation, strengthen the integration of data, knowledge, models,
cases, and tools, comprehensively promote the construction of planning maps,
forecasting models, tool repositories, knowledge bases, and expert
repositories, play an integrated role, and further promote the construction of
theoretical systems and technical standards for development planning
preparation.
Development
planning makes more conductive
The establishment of a unified
planning system and a coordinated mechanism is an essential part of
strengthening the strategic guiding role of development planning and improving
governance capacity. It is necessary to improve the overall coordination of major
development strategies and the review and audit mechanism of major plans and
improve the degree of adaptation and implementation of strategic transmission.
Strengthen the guiding role of development planning in the formulation of
relevant policies, and explore the establishment of a compliance evaluation
mechanism between policies and development planning.
Improve the planning evaluation
and adjustment mechanism, better support the continuous implementation of
planning, and ensure the convergence of government strategic deployment.
Strengthen the supervision of planning implementation, establish a working system
of feedback and rectification, and play a supervisory role in the
implementation of planning by departments and localities.
Conclusions
This paper studies the
construction of an institutional mechanism to strengthen the strategic
orientation of development planning. As strategic planning, development
planning ensures that the national strategy is put in place through guiding
policy documents, special planning, regional planning, and land and space
planning.
We should pay attention to
strengthening the legal basis of development planning from the legal level, and
standardize a series of systems such as planning preparation and implementation
through legislation; Construct a theoretical system of development planning
from the theoretical level, and strengthen the scientific nature of development
planning through digital means;
Establish a unified planning
system from the implementation level, and ensure the smooth implementation of
various strategies put forward in the development plan through supporting
coordination mechanisms, evaluation mechanisms and implementation supervision
mechanisms.
To sum up, the construction of
systems and mechanisms can guarantee the strategic guiding role of development
planning. To make development planning a governance tool to promote economic
and social development more scientifically and effectively, it is necessary to
further study the technical and theoretical methods of development planning and
make further research, and exploration on the implementation mechanism of
development planning.
This
paper is the related transformation results of "Research on Scientific
Decision-making System of Development Planning" (special project of
national influence building think tank, project code: ZKZD20240005), and is
based on the development planning laboratory of Zhejiang Development Planning
Research Institute, a laboratory of philosophy and social sciences.
Bibliographic references
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Available from: https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2020-08/06/content_5532818.htm
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Conflict of interest:
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Authors Contribution
·
Shifeng Zhou: Conceptualization,
Formal Analysis, Research, Methodology, Validation, Original Writing-Draft,
Writing: review and editing
·
Lin Wang: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis,
Research, Methodology, Validation, Original Writing-Draft, Writing: review and
editing
·
Bowen Zhang: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis,
Research, Methodology, Validation, Original Writing-Draft, Writing: review and
editing