By Zhang Yan

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Sharing Achievements Emphasized in Proposal

By Zhang Yan

Achievements of development to be shared by the people

The Proposal of the CPC Central Committee for the 13th Five-Year Plan for economic and social development（2016-2020） - hereinafter referred to as“the Proposal” - clearly stated： “We should uphold the principle of development for the people， by the people and sharing achievements with the people； make more effective institutional arrangements so as to enable the people to have a larger share， strengthen the momentum of development and build the unity of the people to make progress towards common prosperity.” Among the five major development principles of the Proposal， “sharing” is the final goal， an important starting point and vital foothold for progress. “Sharing” should give expression to the improvement of people's level of happiness as well as efforts to maintain their feelings of prosperity.

National Development Principle

the major highlight concerning people's livelihood in the Proposal is to include sharing as a development principle that must be carried out in the next five years.

Gu Shengzu， a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress（NPC） and Vice-Chairman of NPC Financial and Economic Committee， stated： “Sharing development outcomes closely correlates with the goal of building a well-off society. One important idea proposed 30 years ago is to allow some people to get better off first. Now， these people are supposed to help those initially leth behind to achieve common prosperity. To reach the goal through sharing is the distillation of the development principle.”

Zheng Gongcheng， a member of theNPC Standing Committee and President of the China Association of Social Security，believes the idea of sharing development outcomes marks a development stage， shifting the goal from encouraging some people to become well-off first to achieving common prosperity.

For a long time， China made progress in its economic development and urbanization，while faced with many emerging issues. the imbalance of development sharpened many social contradictions， hindering people from prospering together， living a better-off life and sharing the development outcomes fully.therefore， the improvement of people's livelihoods should grow in step with economic growth. that is also the focus of the Proposal.

“Promoting the idea of sharing development outcomes is a reaction going back to the very beginning to resolve social contradictions and issues caused by the imbalance and gap of development，” Zheng said. “this idea creates a clear way to common prosperity and shows the direction to related institutional arrangements.”

No One Should Be Left Behind

“Sharing development outcomes with all” creates the basic standard and necessary road to achieving a moderately prosperous society. Sharing with everyone meets the requirements of justice， fairness and equality. To achieve this， the Proposal set new goals for the building of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects concerning people's livelihood， i.e.， to comprehensively improve people's living standards and quality， lift poor people in rural areas out of poverty based on the current national standard， cast off the label of poverty hanging over on all poverty-stricken counties and solving regional poverty issues.

Yang Weimin， Deputy-Director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs， views eradication of poverty as key to China's future development.

“To overcome poverty in an all-round way is one of the highlights of the Proposal，and the toughest part of the assigned tasks，”Yang said. “China should eliminate the poverty of more than 70 million people and extricate 592 poverty-stricken counties from their current backward condition in the next five years”.

He also stressed that a comprehensive，moderately prosperous society should embrace all the Chinese people， rather than some. China has already reached the level of a middle-income country， but many issues have emerged， such as imbalance， lack of coordinated development， an unsustainable development model and a wide income gap.

“We have to resolutely fight the fierce battle of removing poverty in the 13th Five-Year Plan，” Yang added.

After 30 years of reform and opening-up， China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty， becoming the first developing country to achieve poverty reduction set by the UN Millennium Development Goals. However， as a country with a large territory， China faces issues such as a development gap among different regions and different groups.

According to Zhang Liqun， research fellow of the Department of Macroeconomic Research of the Development Research Center of the State Council， people should achieve a moderately high standard of living regardless of location.

“Sharing development outcomes is the starting point of the 13th Five-Year Plan，”Zhang said. “It is the major feature of the development goals set for the next five years，namely， to build a moderately prosperous society involving everyone； no one should be leth behind.”

Zhang also pointed out that the 13th Five-Year Plan focuses on the comprehensive improvement of people's living standards and quality rather than simple growth of income. that embodies the concept of sharing development outcomes.

“To realize the goal of sharing development outcomes， we need to remove poverty； furthermore， we should strive for wider job opportunities， better education and more stable social security，” Zhang said. “Our final goal is to include everyone in the construction of a better future. With sharing， we can see the powerful drive for development and its final goal to realize the constant improvement of people's welfare， which includes remarkable improvement of living standards of different income groups at various levels.”

Meeting Common Aspirations of the People

“Our people look forward to better education， more stable jobs， more satisfied income， more reliable social security， higher level of medical service， more comfortable living condition and a better environment，”President Xi Jinping said. “they also expect their children to enjoy healthier growth， gain a better job and live a better life.”

For President Xi， improving people's well-being and promoting all-round development is the purpose and mission of Communist Party of China， and the core of the 13th Five-Year Plan.

Eradicating poverty in all poor counties，making senior secondary education nearly universal， providing coordinated universal basic pensions for workers， deepening reform of the medical and health system and implementing the policy of “one couple， two kids” are ideas that comply with the common aspirations of the people， whose expectations are only rising.

Yang Yiyong， director of the Institute of Social Development， National Development and Reform Commission， observed： “During the 12th Five-Year Plan， much attention was paid to people's livelihood， and the government made great public investment and extended the benefit to more people. However， the public didn't feel they got the expected benefits due to the immaturity or absence of some systems. Hence， in the next five years， China will increase the supply of public services and improve the capacity for jointly building and sharing them，which means enhancing compulsory education，employment services，social security， basic medical and health care，public culture and environmental protection nationwide. We have to try our best to mobilize social and market resources through various measures to strengthen the material base for sharing development. These measures will make substantial improvement on the effectiveness of the sharing concept meeting the expectations of everyone.”