Nation well-placed to meet modern challenges

Different environment

Edward Tse, founder and CEO of Gao Feng Advisory, a management consultancy, said China's system is already developing unique capabilities and is well on the way to achieving those goals.

"Early in my career, after returning to China from the United States in the 1990s, I found the business environment was very different from that in the West, with the role of the government very significant," he said.

"This has evolved into a unique model, with the central government giving direction at the top, a private sector delivering incredible innovation at the bottom, and, in between, local government playing an enabling role. I can't think of any country like this－and it is very effective. It is in complete contrast to the US."

One of the recent major debates in China has centered on how the State and private sectors interact and whether the interests of State-owned enterprises have been given priority.

Qi Fanhua, director of the Centre for Research on State Governance at Renmin University of China in Beijing, believes the modernization plan addresses this.

"The relationship between the government and the private sector is a critical factor in the transformation of governance. This is something the Chinese government is working hard to improve," he said.

Mei Ciqi, associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said people should not expect an immediate major change in the way government operates in China as a result of the new modernization drive.

"This is not something specific that is going to happen straightaway. It is a process that is going to be substantiated over the next 15 years, taking us up to 2035, an important year in achieving certain national targets, and beyond that to 2049, when China is set to become a modern socialist country in every respect," he said.

Mei believes some of this modernization is about institutionalizing what is already in place.

"This is actually more important than what might be termed reforming the system. In the Chinese language, the concept of institution is a more important one than system. You could see from the plenum resolution that the government is trying to institutionalize a lot of things," he said.

Andrew Podger, honorary professor of public policy at Australian National University in Canberra and a former senior public servant in Australia, said China's institutional arrangements are not something that could be easily replicated in the West. As an example, he cited the Party playing a coordinating role in driving government modernization.

"It's very much to do with China's institutional arrangements, which are very different from Western ones. The trend in the West has been about less government direction and more about consultation, engagement and negotiation."

Podger said that unlike China, Western governments do not set long-term targets.