TRANSFORMATIONS
China is rapidly transitioning from a mere participant in the international system to a provider of public goods, said Foreign Minister Wang Yi this month on the sidelines of the national legislature's annual session.
More than 70 countries and international organizations have expressed interest in the Belt and Road Initiative, comprising the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road proposed in 2013. It highlights transport infrastructure, investment and trade facilitation, financial cooperation and cultural exchanges.
The China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a complement to the international financial system, was formally established in Beijing last year with 57 founding members - both developing and developed - and is expected to offer its first loans in 2016.
"We (Chinese) are on the path to major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, helping realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and build a community of common destiny for all mankind," Wang said.
In the next five years, China plans to transform itself from an export-driven economy to an innovation-driven power.
Instead of using the traditional "three engines" (capital investment, exports and consumption) to fuel growth, the government is implementing supply-side reforms, including cutting overcapacity, improving supply of goods and services, state-owned enterprise reforms and energizing the non-public sector.
TACKLING CHALLENGES
In the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the Chinese economy is struggling to overcome its strongest downward pressure in decades.
However, it must grow at least 6.5 percent a year on average - the minimum required to build a moderately prosperous society - and double the size of the economy and per-capita income by 2020 from 2010 levels.
China will work hard to raise the remaining 55.75 million poverty-stricken rural people out of poverty by the end of 2020 - an aim described as the "hard bones" of poverty eradication.
With the same determination it showed in fighting poverty, China declared war on pollution, as choking smog has become a major environmental and health concern.
The PM2.5 measure of particulate air pollution was first mentioned in government's annual work report in 2012. Cutting PM2.5 levels is one of binding targets of the new five-year plan.
Expenditure on research and development failed to fulfill the target of 2.2 percent of GDP in the 12th Five-Year Plan. In the next five years, the investment ratio will rise to 2.5 percent, and the target rate of contribution by science and technology to GDP growth will be 60 percent.
The decade to 2020 is an important period in China's history. As a driving force of the world economy, China is determined to become more prosperous.
