The presentation highlighted the five key areas: innovation; co-ordination; green development, open and shared development
With its 13th Five Year Plan (FYP), China is softening its message to the outside world
What is really happening in China? Peter Bruce Director, APAC, IABM
In March, China’s annual Party conference took place and included the announcement of China’s 13th five-year plan (FYP). This Plan (2016 – 2020) on National Economic and Social Development reaffirms the policy vision for China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.
What does it all mean? Well China’s five-year plans are blueprints containing the country’s social, economic and political goals. They encompass and intertwine with existing policies, regional plans, and strategic initiatives. A five-year plan signals the Chinese government’s vision for future reforms and communicates it down the chain of command. The 13th FYP is the first fiveyear plan under President Xi’s leadership, and the articulation of China’s vision for its future. As such, foreign business must become fluent not just in the substance of the plan, but in its language as well, in order to argue for how they fit into China today. Understanding this FYP is important for seeing where China is heading – as we have experienced in the past few years, even if you are not directly doing business in China, you will still feel its effects. One economic analyst characterized the current economic downturn in China with these words:
“China catches cold and the rest of the world starts sneezing” For sure, the current downturn in many South East Asia countries is a result of China’s slowing economy.
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This FYP has highlighted five main principles underpinning the policies for China’s future development. These are: Innovation Development – innovation is the primary engine of development Co-ordinated Development – coordination is an integral aspect of sustained and healthy development Green Development – eco-friendly development is a necessary condition for ensuring lasting development Open Development – opening up is a path China must take to achieve prosperity and continuing development Shared Development – sharing is the essence of socialism with Chinese characteristics. When the main pillars of the FYP include words like “innovation”, “green”, “shared” and “open” it is appears as a much softer approach leading on to 2020. So, where is this FYP going to specifically affect the TV, broadcast and media industry in China and the region? Well, after attending this year’s CCBN (the 24th China Content Broadcasting Network Exhibition) in March in Beijing things are a little bit clearer. According to the plan, by 2020 China’s R&D investment will account for 2.5% of GDP – so science and technology will benefit, with an expected focus on semiconductors, chip materials, robotics, aviation equipment and
satellites. One area of focus highlighted is to ensure that China’s high investment in education actually translates into real value developments in the fields of science and technology. I attended the conference which took place at the Beijing International Conference Center (separate from the main convention center at CIEC). The keynote speech was given by Professor Du Baichuan of SAPPRFT (The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television). A small group had a separate presentation by Professor Du. He spoke about China’s 13th five-year plan on the future for social and economic development for the People’s Republic of China. The presentation highlighted the five key areas: Innovation; Co-ordination; Green development, Open and Shared Development. With a projected ‘medium-high’ rate of economic growth of above 6.5%, according to the plan, China will invest 2.5% of GDP in R&D. The ‘belt and road’ initiative will continue to connect China with Europe via land transport (The Silk Road economic belt) and improve marine connectivity (with the Marine Silk Road project). The technology plan focuses on 1Gig broadband speed availability to urban areas and 100 Mbps to more regional areas. The uptake of Cloud services was projected to stabilize to 20% from 2017 onwards, after an initial spike to over 40%. The report predicts heavy investment in technologies such as on-board video for airlines and development of near-light speed quantum communications – faster and more secure than today’s fiber connections.
The uptake of Cloud services was projected to stabilize to 20% from 2017 onwards, after an initial spike to over 40%
The conference sessions addressed the trend of OTT in China and the challenges for cable networks in addressing reduced growth in their sector. Also discussed were the three Chinese cable access standards of C-DICSOS, CHPAV and HINCO. Additionally, there were many papers on the advantages of the TVOS operating system and its implementation. At the exhibitions site there was a large increase of operational Cloud solutions; almost all booths had a cloud logo somewhere.
As an observation it is clear that China is having to readjust to operating in a global market. China has seen a rapid increase of global investments into emerging markets in Africa, South East Asia and South America. However, the bulk of Chinese overseas investment remains in Western Europe and the USA. With the 13th FYP, China is softening its message to the outside world. However, reform of the military and a speed up of its modernization program is also a key component for China to protect its interests internationally.
Conclusion The world is changing and China is preparing itself for the next five years; there may be an economic slowdown. However, China has not stopped and it is focusing on technology growth up to 2020 and beyond. Expect to see a strong push for China as an innovator at the leading edge of technology and science, shedding the reputation that China invents “Second Best�.
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