The architects of China's economy have drastically reformed the traditional planning system to bring about a fundamental change in the country's thinking, style, and approach toward economic growth.

The planning measures that have played a major role in helping the country achieve an economic 'soft landing' will certainly have a role when drafting the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), according to senior economic planners attending a weekend seminar on China's 50-year economic planning and its future prospects.

China should do more to improve development planning and implementation if the country wants to sustain the upbeat momentum seen in the past 20 years, seminar participants said.

Economic plans should focus on balancing reform, development, and stability, as well as population, resources and environment, they said.

Future planning, which should be macroeconomic, strategic, and policy-oriented, should be placed as top priority in areas that concern the national economy and social development as a whole, they suggested.

In the early years of New China, the central economic planning system contributed handsomely to the establishment of the country's own industrial sectors and the national economy.

Since the reform and opening-up drive in the late 1970s, China's economic planners have come to realize that a centrally-planned economy is not equal to socialism, and economic planning is not contradictory with market economy.

The 10th Five-Year Plan will put forward objectives and policies to continue rapid economic growth, improve economic structures, eco-systems and environmental protection, and raise international competition.