The primary objectives of this five-year plan were to devote significant attention to the preparation for war, to focus on the construction of the third front, to establish economic cooperation zones at various levels, each with its own unique characteristics, and to vigorously synergize them, and to initially establish China's independent and relatively complete national economic system and industrial system.
The plan draft anticipates that the average annual growth rate of industrial and agricultural output value will be 12.5%, the five-year total capital construction investment in the state budget will be 130 billion yuan, the grain output in 1975 will be 600-6500 billion jin, cotton will be 65-70 million quintals, steel will be 35-40 million tons, raw coal will be 400-430 million tons, the power generation capacity will be 200-220 billion kWh, and the railway freight volume will be 9-1 billion tons.
[1] In July 1973, the State Planning Commission released a revised draft that reflected the current situation and reduced certain objectives, such as steel production, which was downsized to 30 million tons after two modifications.
[2] In response to these circumstances, the State Council modified the plan requirements once more, directing the following: to effectively compress the scale of infrastructure, streamline the number of employees, and strengthen the overall control of labor wages; to rectify the work of grain consolidation and marketing; to compress the irrational supply; to adjust the proportionality of agriculture, lightness, and weight; and to reduce the high indexes, such as the production of steel, downward.
The following main products were completed: grain (103.5%), cotton (96.5%), steel (79.7%),[5] raw coal (109.5%), crude oil (110.1%), power generation (103.1%), cotton fibers (96.8%), railroad freight (98.7%), budgeted capital investment (101.6%), and fiscal revenue (98%).