The value of planning: a Chinese lesson for Brazil.

This week I was able to read, in ChinaDaily, An article from the Chinese Communist Party outlining the main goals to be achieved in the country over the next five years. Clear, simple, and direct communication. We are far from doing anything similar.

The pedagogy of the future in China

One of the most remarkable hallmarks of the Chinese experience is its culture of long-term strategic planning. Since the late 1950s, but especially after Deng Xiaoping's reforms, the country established a habit that became part of its political life: the five-year plans. More than just technical documents, these plans are widely disseminated, debated by society, and rigorously monitored. They are in the pages of newspapers, on television programs, and in reports that reach schools and universities. Every citizen knows that there is a collective direction—goals for economic growth, social indicators, scientific development, environmental preservation, and, more recently, climate commitments.

This “extraordinary custom” goes beyond bureaucracy. It is a political pedagogy, a true pedagogy of the future. Chinese strategic planning is not only an instrument of government, but also a mechanism for communicating with the population. It educates them on the idea that the future is built with rational and coordinated choices, not with improvisation or... Slogans Occasionally. The educational effect is clear: citizens know that there is a collective horizon and that the State organizes the path to follow.

Since the first five-year plans in the 1950s, this practice has gained traction and become one of the pillars of Chinese stability. It generates predictability and confidence. Businesspeople and workers know which sectors will be prioritized, where investments will be concentrated, and what goals will guide the country in the medium and long term. Chinese planning is not mere bureaucracy. It is an instrument of social cohesion and national mobilization.

Brazil and improvisation as the rule.

The contrast with Brazil is stark. Despite having attempted important experiments, such as Juscelino Kubitschek's "Plan of Goals," which guided industrial and urban development in the 1950s, undertaken planning efforts during the military regime, created the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) in 1964, and strengthened the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), we have never consolidated planning as a stable institutional practice. We also have public banks like Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica Federal that are fundamental to supporting sound planning.

The 1988 Constitution even provided for the Multi-Year Plan (PPA).) As a mechanism for integrating public policies, the PPA (Pluriannual Plan) has, in practice, become a formal document, little discussed by society and often ignored by subsequent governments. With each change of president, previous goals are abandoned and new initiatives are launched in a disjointed manner.

The result is a nation held hostage by improvisation. Emergency economic packages, discontinued social programs, and infrastructure projects stalled mid-way have become part of our daily lives. Priorities shift according to the political climate, and the country lacks a guiding principle that would give meaning to long-term strategic choices.

Planning is not authoritarianism.

One of the misconceptions fueling the rejection of planning in Brazil is the immediate association with authoritarianism or excessive state intervention. But the example of China and democracies like France, Japan, and South Korea show the opposite: planning means subjecting the future to rationality, transparency, and public debate.

The lack of planning opens the door to arbitrary decisions, made in haste or guided by short-term corporate pressures. Planning means organizing priorities, making goals explicit, and allowing society to demand results. It is, therefore, an exercise in substantive democracy, not a threat to it.

The urgency of a national project

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions, with an abundance of natural resources and enormous productive diversity. We have water, clean energy, arable land, rare earth elements, and biodiversity like few other countries in the world. But without planning, these riches become dispersed, exploited in a predatory manner, or captured by external interests.

The absence of a clear national project leaves us vulnerable: we depend on the fluctuations of the international market, geopolitical pressures, and internal electoral cycles. Just look at how, with each crisis, the country reacts with improvised measures—whether raising interest rates or offering one-off subsidies—but rarely with an integrated vision of development.

Planning for the 21st century

Brazil needs to revive the culture of strategic planning. This means giving life to the PPA (Pluriannual Plan), transforming it into a central document, widely debated by society, monitored by the media, and used as a medium-term guide for the private sector and the government.

More than that, we need plans that incorporate the major issues of the 21st century: the energy transition, the fight against inequality, reindustrialization based on advanced technologies, and environmental preservation.

COP 30, which will be held in Belém do Pará, shows how the world views Brazil as a climate power. Without clear planning, we risk wasting yet another historic opportunity.

While China educates itself and mobilizes around public and transparent plans, Brazil remains a prisoner of improvisation. It is necessary to reverse this logic. Planning is not about rigidity, it's about giving direction. It's not about limiting the future, it's about building it based on conscious choices and shared goals.

Without this culture, we will remain hostage to governments of the moment and unable to fully realize our potential. With it, we can finally design a national project that unites economic development, social justice, and sustainability.

The extraordinary custom of the Chinese should inspire us to transform planning into a democratic habit and a permanent instrument for building the Brazil we want: democratic, sovereign, less inequitable, and with equal opportunities for all citizens.