With its current five-year plan, China’s government is pursuing ambitious goals for growth and diversification. For Swiss companies, this opens up opportunities in the areas of water management, food security and robotics. China’s five-year plans define the country’s social, economic and political goals for the relevant period. This is also true of the thirteenth five-year plan, the first from the government of President Xi Jinping. While the world’s second-biggest economy has seen a slight slowing down of its economic growth over the last few years, the new five-year plan continues to set high goals: the gross national product is set to grow by 6.5 % annually. At the same time, the country is aiming to implement a new development concept that combines growth together with social and political reforms. Just how China wants to balance out its growth strategy and reforms remains to be seen. The international investors certainly appear enthusiastic. Reforms for suppliers, innovation, technological upgrading, competition, improved efficiency and the reduction of dependency on fossil fuels promise some outstanding opportunities. In Switzerland, several thousand companies operate in the area of waste water management, with many producing technical systems or components for waste water treatment. Local Chinese actors are continually on the hunt for Swiss technologies, and if Swiss companies are able to connect up with them, then countless opportunities are opened up.