12th Five-Year Plan
The 12th Five-Year Plan is short for the 12th Five-Year Plan Outline for the National Economic and Social Development of People's Republic of China. The period of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011－2015) represents a key period for building a society of moderate prosperity in all respects and also a critical period for deepening reform and opening-up and speeding up the transformation of the economic development model. This Plan clarifies the national strategies, identifies government’s priorities and guides the activities of market players.
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What China's 12th Five-Year Plan Means To The Average Zhou Blow
One important area that Beijing must address and resolve is the income gap between the business elite and the average Chinese citizen. This disparity and its social consequences are likened by many China watchers as a volcano waiting to explode. While the average hourly wage for a factory worker is about 75 cents an hour, China's headcount of millionaires and billionaires continues to soar. China has just over a million millionaires, up 31 percent from the year prior, ranking China third in the world in terms of number of millionaire households. It also has 115 billionaires, up from only 64 a year earlier and ranking second only to the United States. Consonery predicts China will make some headway in the area of income redistribution through mandatory wage hikes and increased spending on affordable housing and the social welfare system, but cautions that it will take more to create the consumer society that the 12th FYP strives for. "China will fail to introduce the bold reforms necessary to meaningfully redistribute wealth from corporations and government to households," said Consonery. "For instance, big state-owned firms will fiercely resist contributing large chunks of their dividends to government social security funds." Higher taxes on companies and on the rich will also face stiff resistance and be difficult to achieve within five years. To read more on China's 12th Five-Year Plan and what it means for the average Zhou Blow, download Eurasia Group's "China's Great Rebalancing Act."
Journeys toward prosperity
The State Council outlined goals for Guizhou's tourism in a 2012 guideline. These included building Guizhou into a globally famous tourist destination, a leisure resort and a "vital platform for cultural exchange". Transportation has proven key. Guizhou spent 410 billion yuan ($68 billion) weaving all of its 88 county-level regions into a highway network according to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15). It also opened high-speed rail lines that link the province to such major metropolises as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Ten airports in Guizhou serve all nine prefecture-level divisions. Transportation improvements lured 376 million tourists in 2015. They generated 351 billion yuan in revenue - 96 billion yuan more than the previous year. Tourism has become Guizhou's pillar industry, accounting for 9.2 percent of its GDP last year. The sector is expected to create over 500,000 jobs in Guizhou, pulling at least 1 million people out of poverty by 2020, Governor Sun Zhigang says. He made the remark at the 2016 International Conference of Mountain Tourism and Outdoor Sports in Xingyi in Guizhou's Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture late last month. "Developing mountain tourism is direly needed for poverty-relief efforts, especially for places like Guizhou with abundant mountains," says Wei Xiaoan of the World Tourism Cities Federation. Marketing relies heavily on mountains and programs focused on sightseeing, leisure, sports, education and health. Highlighting different destinations' unique characteristics is vital to the tourism boom, he believes. "Don't underestimate mountain tourism," he says.
Taking stock of China's five year economic model
China's affordable housing initiative is a good example of this pattern. In 2010, the goal to build subsidised housing was a key initiative of the 12th five-year plan. The specific goal called for 36 million units of subsidised housing to be built within five years. According to the official statistics, the plan was a success."In reality, we've already built more than 36 million units of subsidised housing in five years," explains Jiang Xuemei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "There was an even bigger process to renovate shanty towns. We aimed to renovate 4 million but in reality, we renovated 10 million of them." But a closer look reveals a more complex picture. In 2014, China's state auditor uncovered "widespread irregularities" in the affordable housing programme. Approximately $1.47bn (?958m) in funds was misappropriated to pay salaries, office expenses and to "invest in wealth management products", the auditing office discovered. Some companies illegally obtained 485 million yuan ($77m, ?50m) worth of subsidies to build housing that did not qualify under the scheme, including dormitories and offices. A further 20,600 people were found to have used fake documents to obtain low-cost housing under the plan. "Corruption does exist in some places," Ms Jiang notes. "The challenge now is to manage the current housing projects and make sure they are fully utilised."
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 During the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period, China's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP declined by 20 percent, completing 117.6 percent of the set goal.
2 The first practical and feasible tactic is to utilize the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales (BUD Fund) set up by the Hong Kong SAR in accordance with the national 12th Five-Year Plan.
3 The average annual growth rate of the index for the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15) was 3.7 percent.