Published by ChinaMNC · Zhaojue

Sichuan's Planning Documents: A Practical Map for Foreign Founders Setting Up in Southwest China

A guide for foreign founders on how Sichuan's published plans and regulatory documents are organized, and how to use them when registering or operating a company in the province.

Why Sichuan's Planning Library Matters to a Foreign Founder

Foreign founders evaluating Sichuan usually start with Chengdu, the provincial capital, and then ask a practical question: what official documents exist that describe how the province intends to develop, and where can I find them? The Sichuan provincial government publishes a structured public-information page that collects policy, rules, administrative normative documents, and planning documents in one place. For a founder, this is less a reading list than a due-diligence checklist. It shows which plans are current, which are historic, and which parts of the province have dedicated spatial or sector plans.

This article explains how that library is organized and how a foreign founder can use it when registering a company, choosing a location, or planning an expansion in Sichuan. It does not evaluate the plans themselves; it explains what is published and why each category is relevant.

How the Documents Are Organized

Policy, rules and normative documents

The page separates policies, rules, administrative normative documents, government normative documents and departmental normative documents. A subsection for the Provincial Development and Reform Commission lists 24 items. For a founder, normative documents are the ones to watch: they are the formal instruments through which provincial departments set requirements that companies must follow.

Five-year plans

The core of the library is a sequence of provincial economic and social development five-year plans. The page lists the 15th Five-Year Plan outline (published 2026-04-13), the 14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 long-range objectives outline (2021-03-17), the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-02-15) and the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-01-28). Reading the current outline alongside its predecessor helps a founder see which priorities are continuing and which are new.

Spatial planning

A separate section covers territorial and spatial plans: the Sichuan Tianfu New Area spatial plan (2021–2035), published 2025-12-31; a notice from the Provincial Department of Natural Resources issuing five specialized plans including the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone spatial plan (2021–2035), dated 2024-11-04; the provincial spatial plan (2021–2035), dated 2024-04-11; the Anning River Basin spatial plan (2022–2035), dated 2022-11-22; and the provincial ecological restoration spatial plan (2021–2035), dated 2022-07-08. Older documents include the provincial main functional zones plan (2013-04-16) and land-use master plans for 2006–2020 and 1997–2010. Spatial plans matter for anyone who needs land, a factory site, or a warehouse.

Regional and metropolitan plans

This section covers the Chengdu metropolitan area: the 15th Five-Year Plan for integrated development of the Chengdu metropolitan area (2026-09-09) and the Chengdu metropolitan area development plan (2021-11-29). It also includes the national outline for the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council (2021-10-21), plus 14th Five-Year Plan documents for the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone, the Northwest Sichuan ecological demonstration zone, the Panxi economic zone, the South Sichuan economic zone and the Northeast Sichuan economic zone, all dated 2021-06-09. A 13th Five-Year Plan notice covering five regional plans (2019-01-25) and a Northwest Sichuan ecological economy zone plan (2016-09-02) are also listed.

Sector plans and approvals

The library lists provincial government approvals and plans across sectors: water security, public services, Beautiful Sichuan construction, traditional Chinese medicine development, disability protection and development, sports development, natural resources protection and use, health development, geological disaster prevention, and market regulation modernization, all under the 15th Five-Year Plan and dated between 2026-09-11 and 2026-10-09. A housing and urban-rural development high-quality development plan is dated 2026-08-31.

Heritage and scenic-area approvals

A further group records government approvals for heritage and landscape protection plans, including historic cities, historic towns and villages, and scenic areas. Examples include Luzhou historic city (2025–2035), Mianzhu historic city (2023–2035), Enyang historic town and five other towns and villages (2024–2035), Mengding Mountain scenic area (2025–2035), the Banyueshan cliff carvings, Laojun Mountain scenic area (2025–2035), five historic towns including Yeye town in Zigong (2025–2035), Jiange historic city (2025–2035) and Tongjiang historic city (2024–2035).

How a Foreign Founder Can Use This

• Confirm which plan is current. Match the plan period to your investment horizon. A 2021–2035 spatial plan and a 15th Five-Year Plan outline are different instruments with different time frames.
• Match location to plan. If your project depends on land or logistics, check the spatial plans for the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone or the Tianfu New Area before committing to a site.
• Watch departmental normative documents. Requirements for registration, permits and operations often originate in departmental normative documents rather than in the five-year outlines.
• Check sector plans relevant to your industry. Health, market regulation, water security and natural resources plans can affect licensing and compliance.
• Use the city list for local follow-up. The page links to 21 municipal and prefecture-level governments: Chengdu, Zigong, Panzhihua, Luzhou, Deyang, Mianyang, Guangyuan, Suining, Neijiang, Leshan, Nanchong, Yibin, Guang'an, Dazhou, Bazhong, Ya'an, Meishan, Ziyang, Aba, Garze and Liangshan. Local registration and site rules sit with these governments.

Practical Cautions

Plan documents describe intentions and frameworks; they are not approvals for a specific project. A founder should treat them as context for conversations with local authorities and professional advisers, and should verify the status of any document before relying on it. Several items in the library are historic, including land-use plans that have expired and older five-year plans, and they should be read as background rather than current rules.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.