Drawing up the blueprint for the 15th Five-Year Plan and opening a new chapter of China-Barbados cooperation

The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened its fourth plenary session in Beijing from October 20 to 23, 2025. Committee members deliberated and adopted the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development. The drawing up of a blueprint for China’s modernisation over the next five years, presented a promising vision of win-win cooperation between China and the world.

 

Green development is a defining feature of Chinese modernisation. Over the past five years, China has built the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system and the most comprehensive new-energy industrial chain. In 2024, China’s renewable energy generation reached 3.46 trillion kilowatt-hours, while the country’s new-type energy storage capacity rose to the first globally. China also contributes more than 40 per cent of the world’s new-energy patents and has remained the largest producer and seller of new energy vehicles for ten consecutive years.

 

Over the next five years, China will advance the creation of a “Beautiful China.” Guided by the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, we will take coordinated steps to reduce carbon emissions, deepen cooperation on green energy, and support the free flow of high-quality green technologies and products — injecting new impetus into the global green and low-carbon economy.

 

Opening up is China’s basic national policy that will never waver. China has contributed an average of around 30 per cent to global economic growth in recent years and accounts for over 30 per cent of global manufacturing output. With more than 400 million people now in the middle-income bracket, China is the world’s second-largest consumer and import market. Despite external pressures and rising protectionism, China has expanded institutional accessibility, promoted trade innovation, broadened two-way investment, and advanced high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, helping to shape a more balanced, sustainable, and inclusive form of globalisation. In the next five years, China will firmly promote high-level opening up, further energising global trade and deepening mutually beneficial investment partnerships to build an economic globalisation that is open, inclusive, balanced, and beneficial to all.

 

Building a community with a shared future for mankind is the noble goal of Chinese diplomacy. Today, hegemony, unilateralism, and protectionism continue to challenge the United Nations and the multilateral system. The world is experiencing the highest number of countries in conflict since World War II, while global human development has hit a 35-year low. In the next five years, China is willing to work with all parties to promote a more just and equitable global governance system, uphold the international rule of law, safeguard fairness and justice, practice true multilateralism, and advance mutual benefit and win-win cooperation.

 

China and Barbados, both key members of the Global South, are natural partners. In recent years, bilateral cooperation has continued to deepen and deliver tangible results. Chinese electric buses have helped Barbados build the largest Transport Board fleet in the Caribbean. Chinese enterprises have played an active role in upgrading the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project, the National Stadium Redevelopment Project, the China-Aid Centre for Food Security and Entrepreneurship and Hope Agricultural Training Institute have all made steady progress, bringing real benefits to Barbados and its people. China and Barbados also maintain close coordination at the United Nations, on global climate governance, and within the framework of South-South cooperation, jointly upholding multilateralism and the international system with the UN at its core.

 

In the next five years, China’s high-quality development will create vast opportunities for businesses, both domestic and abroad, and contribute to a future of common prosperity. Working with China means working with opportunities. Barbados is the first country in the eastern Caribbean to establish diplomatic relations with China, and our peoples have long enjoyed deep friendship. Standing at a new starting point defined by the 15th Five-Year Plan, China is ready to share its development opportunities with Barbados, inject new vitality into bilateral cooperation, and jointly open a new chapter in China-Barbados relations.

Ambassador H.E. Zheng Bingkai