"Every community has a five-year plan, but after about the second year, they seem to lose momentum, or theres a change at the board level or the staff level and they implement a new five-year plan."
And because the current five-year plan is ending, Keller said the village will begin to make a new one.
The Second
Five-Year Plan (1980-1985) of Bangladesh focused on poverty reduction through growth of income and employment.
"One direction that seems to be clear is perhaps we will not be doing
five-year plan," he said.
China has learned a lot since these early attempts at reform, however, and the objectives of its more recent five-year plans are not unlike those of any other modern nation that is grappling with pollution, the depletion of scarce resources and increasing wealth disparity.
The priorities of the current five-year plan are higher quality growth, increased domestic consumption, and the development of modern industries (which includes new energy sources, biotechnology, automobiles, and IT infrastructure).
A strategic
five-year plan might then be drafted but if managers know that, in practice, the priority is to achieve the budget, then the real plan is the budget.
The 11th
Five-Year Plan is being taken more as an expression of the kinds of policy commitments China's leadership is expected to pursue over the next few years.
Other projects are still in the study stage and will be implemented according to the priorities of the
five-year plans.
After the failure of two mini-budgets to give a direction to the economy, the 12th
five-year plan is being touted as the road map.