On March 13, 2021, China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) approved the outline of the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, covering the period 2021-2025. The plan’s economic and social development targets provide critical signposts that companies—both foreign and domestic—would be wise to heed when determining their own plans for the coming months and years in the Chinese market. The full text of the plan can be accessed here in its original Chinese. This article will be updated with a link to an English translation once it becomes available.

The five-year plan is the centerpiece of the Chinese system of industrial planning and policy. Reflecting the transformation of the country over the past 70 years, the content and purpose of the five-year plan has changed substantially since the first plan was issued in Mao Zedong’s China in 1953. As the economy has evolved from a pure command economy to one in which the market plays a greater role, albeit with substantial engagement and interventions by the government, the five-year plan has evolved as well. Early plans set production targets; modern plans are a mixture of principles, guidelines, and targets designed to steer the country’s development. This evolution has not reduced the importance of the five-year plan—it remains a central feature of the Chinese economic system—but it does affect how it should be interpreted and how its guidance is implemented in practice. Ultimately, the five-year plan’s purpose is to set strategic goals, focus government work, and guide the activities of market and non-market entities in China. In developing the 14^th Five-Year Plan, China’s leaders set an ambitious agenda to “promote high-quality development in all aspects, including the economy, environment, and people’s livelihood and wellbeing, and realize the rise of China’s economy in the global industrial chain and value chain.”
Continue Reading China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025): Signposts for Doing Business in China