Input from the advisers will help China create a more realistic development blueprint that will help the country avoid the “middle income trap,” according to Li. (Photo : China Daily)
China’s Cabinet has sought out top Chinese and foreign economists for advice on the country’s new Five-Year Plan (2016-20), China Daily reported. It’s the first time the Chinese government has undertaken such a move.
"It is the first time the State Council has invited domestic as well as foreign experts to give advice on the making of a five-year plan," Li said during a seminar at the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency, last Monday, Dec. 7.
Input from the advisers will help China create a more realistic development blueprint that will help the country avoid the "middle income trap," according to Li.
The Chinese premier went on to add that total factor productivity should be included in the new Five-Year Plan as it concerns total output beyond traditionally measured inputs such as labor and capital.
To increase this variable, the country must grow its human capital.
"How do we play up human capital in economic growth? The answer is institutional reform and technology innovation," Li said in his speech.
Among those invited by the State Council is Nobel Prize economic laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who questions whether living conditions can also improve alongside economic growth.
"What China needs in the next Five-Year Plan is a more publicly provided consumer and investment goods," said Stiglitz. "The investments that are needed today include local public transportation systems and investments in cities."
Meanwhile, Jonathan Woetzel, the Shanghai office director of McKinsey and Co., placed an emphasis on the quality of growth.
"We believe there is an opportunity to increase productivity, and the 13th Five-Year Plan can and should place new emphasis on quality over quantity of growth," Woetzel said.
Other experts invited in the seminar included Cai Fang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Xue Lan, professor of public policy and managemet at Tsinghua University; Huang Haizhou, managing director of China International Capital Corp.; and Bert Hofman, World Bank's country director for China, Korea and Mongolia.
