China’s socialist market economy is developing steadily and as planned. During the Ninth Five-year Plan period (1996-2000), tremendous achievements in economic and social development were achieved. During the period of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), the first magnificent blueprint for the new century, the main targets for economic and social development are as follows:

—Maintaining a fairly rapid growth rate of the national economy, achieving noticeable success in the strategic restructuring of the economy, and making marked improvements in the quality and benefits of economic growth, to lay a solid foundation for doubling the 2000 GDP by 2010; making significant progress in establishing a modern enterprise system in state-owned enterprises, improving the social security system and the socialist market economy and taking part in international economic cooperation and competition extensively and in depth.

—The average annual economic growth rate will be about seven percent. By 2005, the GDP will reach about 12,500 billion yuan, calculated at the prices of 2000, and the GDP per capita will be 9,400 yuan. In the coming five years, the number of employees will increase by 40 million, and the number of surplus rural laborers to be transferred will also be 40 million. The registered urban unemployment rate will be controlled at about five percent; the price level as a whole will be basically stable; and the international revenue and expenditure will be basically balanced.

—The industrial structure will be optimized and upgraded, and China’s international competitiveness will be strengthened. In 2005, the value increases of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries will be 13 percent, 51 percent and 36 percent of the GDP, respectively; their employees will account for 44 percent, 23 percent and 33 percent, respectively, of the total employees; the national economy and the social IT level will be remarkably improved; the infrastructure facilities will be further improved; the development disparity between regions will be put under effective control; and the urbanization level will be raised.

—In 2005, the proportion of the research and development funds of the entire society in the GDP will increase to more than 1.5 percent; sci-tech innovation capabilities will be strengthened, and technological progress will be speeded up; the gross enrolment rate of junior high schools will be over 90 percent; and that of senior high schools and higher education, about 60 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

—The natural population growth rate will be less than nine per thousand, and in 2005 China’s total population will be no more than 1.33 billion. The forest coverage will be raised to 18.2 percent, and the urban green rate, to 35 percent; the total amount of major urban and rural pollutants discharged will be reduced by 10 percent as compared with that of 2000; and remarkable achievements will be made in the saving and protection of natural resources.

—The average annual growth rate of the disposable income per urban resident and that of the net income per rural resident will both be about five percent; in 2005, the floor space of housing per urban resident will be increased to 22 sq m, and 40 percent of the total households in China will have cable TV; medical and health services in both urban and rural areas will be further improved; and the people’s cultural life will be richer and more varied.