Header graphic for print
China Law Blog China Law for Business

China’s 12th Five Year Plan. Again.

By Dan Harris on Posted in China Business, Recommended Reading

We have already done a number of posts on China’s 12th Five Year Plan and co-blogger Steve Dickinson seems to be spending about half of his life these days speaking on the Plan before various Chambers of Commerce. Here are our previous posts:

We are writing and speaking so much on China’s new Five Year Plan because it is important to nearly all businesses involved with China. 

One of the things we are always saying here is that the Chinese government is actually pretty good in telling businesses what its goals are and then sticking to those goals. If your business nicely lines up with those goals, good things are likely to happen to you in China. If your business does not line up with those goals, bad things could result. Sometimes the key is not so much the nature of your business, but the nature of how you explain your business. That is particularly true when seeking to register a WFOE. For more on that, check out “How To Form a China WFOE. Scope Really Really Matters.“

The above is actually just a prelude to my recommending you read The Brunswick Group’s stellar analysis of the Five Year Plan here. From a business perspective, Brunswick emphasized the following three things:

GDP growth lowered to 7% 
over the 12
th
 Five-Year 
Plan period. 
To become a “moderately 
prosperous society” 
officials seek to diversify 
the economy and grow the 
service sector. 
• Services: The service sector will be further promoted with the goal of 
raising its value added contribution to GDP by 4%. 
• Urbanisation: Urbanisation is expected to increase from 47.5% to 
51.5%. 
• R&D: Investment in R&D will increase to 2.2% of GDP. 
• Healthcare: Further reform of the pharmaceutical and healthcare system will be enacted with a focus on improving the basic medical and 
health care systems and expanding availability.  In addition, basic pension and medical insurance systems will be expanded to cover all urban 
and rural residents and the proportion of expenses for medical treatment paid out of the medical insurance fund will be increased to over 
70%. 
• Environment: The proportion of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption should reach 11.4%; energy consumption and CO2 emissions 
per unit of GDP should be reduced by 16% and 17% respectively; and 
the release of major pollutants should be reduced by 8% to 10%. 
Stringent environmental 
goals are prominently 
detailed in the 12
th
 FiveYear Plan. 
• Employment: Over the next five years an extra 45 million urban jobs 
will be created, an increase approximately the size of the population of 
Spain.   
• Income: Per capita disposable income of urban residents and the per 
capita net income of rural residents will rise by an annual average of 
over 7% in real terms. 
• Corruption: The government voiced continued commitment to making 
“institutional changes to end the excessive concentration of power and 
lack of checks on power, and resolutely prevent and punish corruption”. 
3. 2
  • GDP growth lowered to 7% over the Five-Year Plan period.
  • To become a “moderately prosperous society,” China must seek to diversify the economy and grow the service sector.
  • Stringent environmental goals are prominently detailed.

If you are like us and cannot get enough analysis of the Plan, I urge you to read The Brunswick Group’s report.

  • Joel

    The Brunswick Group report is outstanding! This post is a great aggregate of the 12th Five-year plan information, and a good reminder that it is important to understand.
    I look forward to meeting you and hearing your presentation in Chengdu with AmCham Southwest on April 12th.