The Proposal of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee for the Formulation of the 12th Five-Year Socio-economic Development Plan, which had been adopted on January 19 at the 10th Plenary Session of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee, was released for official distribution on January 29. The proposal calls upon Guangzhou to strive for a leapfrog of the its soft power while building its hard power.

On the strength of an average annual GDP growth of 11% during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, Guangzhou will increase efforts to establish itself as a central city of the nation, an international center for commerce and trade, a leading cultural city of the world, and the best city of the province. The city will also set out to ensure equality in basic public services and enhance the happiness of local residents.

The plan envisions the achievement of the following targets by 2015: substantial progress in the transformation of the city's means of economic growth; the establishment of a modern system of industries centered on service economy; strong momentum of growth for industries catering to the top end of the market; an average GDP growth of about 11%, and 65% of the city's gross output value coming from the added value of the service sector, and establishment of Guangzhou as an innovative city of the nation; substantial progress in building a high-livability city; significant improvement in urban planning, development and administration; stronger supporting function of hub infrastructure facilities, and remarkable enhancement of the city's comprehensive accommodating capacity; dramatic improvement in the quality of the ecological environment; establishment of a garden city; preliminary formation of a resource-conserving and environmentally-friendly society; one of the highest levels of urbanization in the city; synchronized growth of the incomes of urban and rural residents and balanced urban and rural economic growth; and significantly improved quality of life.

The plan also calls for strong efforts to achieve the following targets during the 12th Five-Year Plan period: the formation of a basic public service system covering both urban and rural residents, steadily improving social security and expanding employment, solid progress in public services such as healthcare, education, culture and sports, stronger morality, scientific and cultural competence and physical conditions among urban and rural residents, and more people-based intensive social management and greater social harmony. Guangzhou is envisioned to become a central city of the nation with a comprehensive range of functions, strong global resources allocation capacity, and significantly improved international competitiveness, and be established as a modern international metropolis oriented towards the entire world and serving the whole nation by 2020.