By Thobile Jiwulane
There is an ongoing discussion among experts and decision-makers in Africa regarding whether China’s development planning and implementation model should be applied to address Africa’s development challenges.
The debate is not about whether the Chinese model is suitable or not; it is about how it should adopted and remodelled to suit Africa’s needs and circumstances, considering the continent’s challenges of underdevelopment and stagnant growth. There is consensus about the need to act with urgency and consistency, if the continent is to be rescued from its quagmire
An estimated 100 people comprising academics, senior politicians from the majority African National Congress party, state functionaries, University of Johannesburg post-graduate students and researchers who gathered at the University of Johannesburg’s Business School, South Africa, debated this very issue in a lively seminar. The seminar was under the theme: ‘Improving National Planning Systems in the Global South: Sharing China’s 15th Five-Year Plan’. They identified commonalities but a different pace of implementation in the two countries’ respective development approaches.
The gathering, which focused on Xi Jinping: Governance of China, was addressed by a panel of high-level speakers who included China Consul-General to Johannesburg, Pan Qingjiang, and South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration, Pinky Kekana. Pan explained the points made by Communist Party of China general secretary Xi Jinping, who explained the secret behind the CPC’s success in leading the Chinese people through an extraordinary journey and the remarkable achievements it made.
Pan said formulating and implementing medium- and long-term development plans constituted one of the concrete embodiments of this success formula. He said Xi pointed out that formulating and implementing five-year plans scientifically and consistently is an important experience that the Party has gained in national governance and a major political strength of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
According to Pan, the seminar, which was themed on China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and the development of the Global South, was of exceptional significance as it facilitated mutual learning and joint development by both China and South Africa. “China is committed to working hand in hand with African countries, including South Africa, to advance modernisation and build a community with a shared future for mankind. It also strives to strengthen coordination and cooperation among the Global South and promote the reform and improvement of global governance,” Pan said.
He elaborated on other aspects of the 15th Five-Year Plan, which contains forward-looking and systemic top-level design that underpins scientific decision-making. The period covered by the 15th Five-Year Plan serves as a pivotal link in China’s journey to basically realise socialist modernisation. Pan stated that the Plan maintains continuity with the concepts and approaches outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan while accurately grasping the overarching trends of China’s development over the next five years, ensuring the general thinking, major principles, key targets and strategic tasks.
“This top-level design is not arbitrary. It is rooted in the fundamental judgment that China’s sound economic foundation, multiple strengths, strong resilience and huge potential remain unchanged, and the country’s long-term positive development trend will persist,” he said. Pan added: “Such comprehensive forward-looking top-level planning stems from the CPC’s profound grasp of the laws governing economic and social development. More importantly, the centralised unified leadership of the Party Central Committee transcends departmental interests and short-term demands, enabling holistic long-term planning for national development.”
The Consul-General also outlined other aspects of the 15th Five-Year Plan, such as Strategic Coordination: Aligning Long-Term Vision with Successive Endeavours, that involves balancing short-term and long-term priorities and partial and overall interests, ensuring consistent development under a unified blueprint.
Asked by the audience how China manages to implement under the pressure of deadlines to move to the next Plan, Pan said Chinese planning and implementation always have institutional support that backs them to achieve the goal of the development projects. “Such institutional mechanisms provide safeguards for delivery. To ensure the 15th Five-Year Plan delivers tangible results, China will continue and refine proven mechanisms for plan implementation, forming a resource allocation model where projects follow the plan and funds and production factors follow the projects,” Pan said.
South Africa’s position was stated and clarified by Deputy Minister Pinky Kekana, another high-level speaker at the seminar. Kekana noted that South Africa and China have followed different historical paths, operate within different political systems and are guided by different constitutional traditions. Yet both recognise that the state has a central responsibility to improve the lives of its citizens through strategic planning, effective governance and long-term investment in people.
“China’s experience in long-term national planning offers important lessons regarding strategic coordination, infrastructure planning, industrial policy and implementation over extended time horizons,” she said, adding that equally, South Africa contributes valuable experience in constitutional governance, institutional accountability and cooperative governance across spheres of government.
Kekana said these perspectives should not be viewed as competing alternatives, but as complementary contributions to the broader conversation on development in the 21st century. “As countries of the Global South, we have much to gain from partnerships that are based not on dependency, but on mutual respect, shared learning and practical cooperation,” she added.
Such cooperation should increasingly extend beyond trade and investment to include public sector innovation, digital government, artificial intelligence, public administration, leadership development and skills exchange. The future developmental state will be digitally enabled, data-driven and citizen-centred. Technology will undoubtedly transform government, but technology alone will never substitute for ethical leadership, institutional integrity and professional public servants, she pointed out.
Bandile Masuku, member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and a member of the majority party, African National Congress, said that both China and South Africa are implementing their respective development plans and are supporting each other. “Today we meet at a particularly significant moment, as China has embarked on the implementation of its 15th Five-Year Plan, while South Africa approaches the final years of its National Development Plan 2030,” he said. “Both plans are ambitious national visions designed to improve the lives of citizens, strengthen economies and build prosperous societies.”
He noted that one of the most remarkable features of China’s development experience is the consistency of its planning framework. The 15th Five-Year Plan builds upon previous plans and seeks to strengthen scientific and technological innovation, industrialisation, infrastructure development, national security, social development and long-term economic growth.
“It emphasises policy alignment and coordination across all levels of government, and measures outcomes. South Africa similarly adopted the National Development Plan 2030 as a long-term blueprint aimed at eliminating poverty, reducing inequality and creating jobs by 2030,” Masuku said.