The draft outline of the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" sets 20 main indicators to fully reflect the clear direction of promoting high-quality development.

　　On March 7, the State Council Information Office held a briefing to interpret the draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and answer questions from reporters.

　　Livelihood indicators account for more than 1/3

　　The main indicators are the key traction for the implementation of the five-year plan. Zheng Bei, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that the draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" coordinates needs and possibilities, quantity and quality, and sets 20 main indicators in 5 areas. Among them, the GDP growth target is set as "maintaining within a reasonable range, proposed annually as appropriate, laying a good foundation for doubling the per capita GDP by 2035 compared to 2020 and reaching the level of moderately developed countries," fully reflecting the clear orientation of promoting high-quality development.

　　Zheng Bei introduced that the draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" sets 7 livelihood indicators, accounting for more than 1/3 of the main indicators.

　　"The elderly and the young" are major issues of concern for many families. Liu Dechun, Director of the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that the draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" uses two chapters to elaborate on actively responding to population aging and building a fertility-friendly society.

　　In terms of actively responding to population aging, it ensures that the elderly are cared for, improves the mechanism for determining and adjusting basic pension insurance benefits, gradually increases the basic pension for urban and rural residents, promotes long-term care insurance, develops community-embedded elderly care services, family elderly care beds, and mutual assistance elderly care, upgrades 2,000 public elderly care institutions, and the proportion of nursing beds in elderly care institutions reaches 73%. At the same time, it supports the elderly to be active and enjoy life.

　　In building a fertility-friendly society, it strengthens fertility protection, expands the coverage of the maternity insurance system, reasonably improves the guarantee level of prenatal examination medical expenses, regulates and orderly promotes the application of assisted reproductive technology, fully implements the maternity leave system, and provides better basic protection for childbearing families. At the same time, it improves childcare services, supports the development of integrated childcare services in kindergartens, promotes a 6 percentage point increase in the enrollment rate of infants and young children under 3 years old; reduces the burden of raising children, utilizes policies such as special additional deductions for personal income tax, explores the establishment of a dynamic adjustment mechanism for child-rearing subsidies, improves family development policies, increases support for multi-child families in education, housing, etc., and effectively reduces the cost of family childbirth, upbringing, and education.

　　Improve the quality and level of the supply system

　　The draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" proposes to promote positive interaction between consumption and investment, supply and demand, achieve a higher level of dynamic balance between supply and demand, and enhance the endogenous power and reliability of the domestic circulation. Yuan Da, Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that efforts will be made to further improve the quality and level of the supply system around "what is lacking and weak, traditional and emerging."

　　For "what is lacking," accelerate breakthroughs. Promote decisive breakthroughs in key core technology research in key areas such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, and high-end instruments across the entire chain, and enhance the independent and controllable level of the industrial chain.

　　For "what is weak," accelerate the filling of gaps. Implement actions to expand capacity and improve quality in the service industry, deepen reform and opening up in the service sector, improve the support policy system, strengthen weak links in the productive service industry, and vigorously cultivate the "China Service" brand.

　　For "traditional," accelerate optimization and enhancement. Adhere to industry-specific policies, strengthen and optimize boutique steel bases, first-class petrochemical bases, high-end shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment bases, promote innovation across the entire industrial chain of mechanical equipment, and expand the supply of high-quality products in light industry, textiles, etc.

　　For "emerging," accelerate cultivation and growth. Build strong strategic emerging industry clusters such as new generation information technology, new energy, robotics, aerospace, etc., according to local conditions, and promote the accelerated development of future industries such as quantum technology, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and 6G.

　　The draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" proposes to promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, continuously giving rise to new quality productivity. Bai Jingyu, Director of the Innovation and High-Tech Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that first, increase high-quality scientific and technological supply, firmly grasp the foundation of deep integration. Second, strengthen the main position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, firmly grasp the key to deep integration. Third, promote the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, firmly grasp the path of deep integration.

　　Build a batch of major scientific and technological infrastructure

　　The draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" proposes to build a modern infrastructure system. What is the development direction of modern infrastructure in the next five years?

　　Chen Lei, Director of the Development Strategy and Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that building a modern infrastructure system includes not only transportation, water conservancy, energy, etc., but also major scientific and technological infrastructure, information communication networks, computing power networks, and other new infrastructure.

　　In terms of transportation, during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the modern comprehensive transportation system will be improved, the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway main channels and the national expressway network will be basically completed, the quality and upgrading of high-grade inland waterways will be promoted, a world-class port group and airport group will be basically completed, and a number of major engineering projects such as the high-standard Yangtze River high-speed railway channel and the new Three Gorges waterway will be implemented.

　　In terms of energy, efforts will focus on building a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient new energy system, adhering to the multi-energy approach of wind, solar, water, and nuclear, implementing a ten-year doubling action for non-fossil energy, and promoting the safe, reliable, and orderly replacement of fossil energy by non-fossil energy. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, through the implementation of major engineering projects such as the Yaxia Hydropower and "Shagehuang" new energy base, the capacity for transmitting electricity from the west to the east will reach more than 420 million kilowatts, and by 2030, the proportion of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption will reach 25%.

　　In terms of water conservancy, efforts will focus on modern water network construction, accelerating the demonstration and implementation of a number of major engineering projects in river governance, flood control reservoirs, etc., and enhancing the ability to defend against flood disasters, coordinate water resource allocation, and ensure urban and rural water supply.

　　In terms of new infrastructure, efforts will be made to strengthen overall planning and intensive and efficient utilization, systematically layout and build a batch of strategic-oriented, application-supporting, and forward-looking leading major scientific and technological infrastructure, promote the deployment and application of 10G optical networks and large-scale commercial use of 5G-A mobile communication networks, build a national integrated computing power network, and coordinate the construction of satellite communication, navigation, and remote sensing systems, using scenario expansion as a guide to build low-altitude infrastructure, providing solid support for industrial upgrading and digital-intelligent development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" and beyond.

　　People's Daily (March 8, 2026, Page 04)