New Five-Year Plan will set China on course to 2049

Significance

Sectoral and regional five-year plans drafted on the basis of the national plan will then set out in detail measures that change the policy, regulatory or competitive environment in ways that potentially affect firms in every sector in every part of the country.

Impacts

• The Plan will give an early indication of how committed China really is to its 2060 net-zero emissions pledge.
• The lack of high-priority GDP targets suggests movement towards a more multi-faceted development model, but perhaps also uncertainty.
• Beijing’s plans assume that a more difficult economic relationship with Washington is a long-term feature, not a temporary Trump-era one.