The Chinese government is accelerating the reform of strategic planning by integrating the idea of sustainable growth into the formulation of its social and economic development goals.

    Zhu Zhixin, vice minister of the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC), told an international seminar here Wednesday that the Chinese government had changed the title of the traditional "Five-Year Plan" to the "Five-Year Program" in a bid to cater to its development policy into an increasingly market-oriented economy.

    For the past five-plus decades, the Chinese government had drafted plans for each five-year period, setting major policy goals of social and economic development.

    In drafting policy goals for the 2006-10 period, the Chinese government has increased public participation by contracting research projects of major economic and social issues to non-governmental institutes and encouraging the public to voice their opinions on development strategy.

    In a break from the traditional practice of setting similar policy goals for various areas of the vast country, the central government now attaches importance to the drafting of regional development programs.

    It is composing five-year programs on the development of such regions as the Yangtze River Delta, the areas around Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, the traditional industrial zone in northeast China and the areas around Chengdu and Chongqing cities in the southwest.

    In addition to regional goals, the government is conducting experiments in drafting county-level development programs in six counties around the country, including Suzhou, Ningbo, Yibin, Qinzhou, Zhuanghe and Anxi.

    At the same time, the government is drafting strategic programson major industries such as energy, transportation and raw materials. It also promulgated regulations on preliminary study, coordination, public participation and consultation of policy goaldevelopment. Enditem