Full text: Report on the work of the government

2014 Two Sessions

7. Accelerating the development of education, health, culture and other social programs

Boosting the development of social programs is an effective way to promote social justice and increase people's happiness. We need to deepen reform of the social system and promote coordinated economic and social development by increasing spending and adopting stronger measures.

We will give high priority to developing education and making it more equitable.

We will continue to allocate more education resources to the central and western regions and rural areas and promote the balanced development of compulsory education. We will comprehensively improve conditions in poorly built and run schools providing compulsory education in poor areas. The number of rural students from poor areas enrolled in key colleges and universities will again be increased by more than 10%, and this will give rural children more opportunity to receive higher education.

We will raise the competence of rural teachers, especially in poor and border areas, expand the reach of quality education resources and improve the nutrition of children in poor rural areas. We will develop preschool education and implement the plan to improve special education.

We will continue to increase central government spending on education, use it more effectively and strengthen oversight over its use. We will deepen comprehensive education reform and actively and prudently reform the school examination and enrollment systems. We will expand the responsibility of provincial-level governments over local education, give institutions of higher learning more decision-making power, and encourage the development of private schools. We will accelerate the establishment of an employment-oriented modern vocational education system. We will provide quality education to the next generation and work hard to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to develop.

We will deepen medical reform.

We will consolidate the national basic medical insurance system and integrate the basic medical insurance system for rural residents with that for non-working urban residents through reform. We will improve the mechanism for the government, employer and employee to share the costs of basic medical insurance. The annual government subsidy for basic medical insurance for rural and non-working urban residents will be increased to 320 yuan per person. The major disease insurance scheme for rural and non-working urban residents will be introduced nationwide.

We will strengthen urban and rural medical assistance and emergency assistance for disease treatment. Trial comprehensive reform of county-level public hospitals will be extended to cover 1,000 counties and 500 million rural residents. We will expand trial comprehensive reforms of urban public hospitals.

We will abolish the practice of compensating for low medical service charges with high drug prices, adjust the prices of medical care and drugs, and create a mechanism for running hospitals by nongovernmental capital. We will consolidate and improve the system of using basic medicines and the new mechanisms for operating community-level clinics. We will improve the system of tiered medical services, strengthen training of general practitioners, and allow doctors to work in more than one medical institution so that people have easy access to quality medical services. We will build harmonious relations between doctors and patients.

We will improve our capacity to prevent and treat major communicable and chronic diseases and occupational and endemic diseases. The government subsidy for basic public health services will be increased to 35 yuan per person. We will support the development of traditional Chinese medicine and the traditional medicine of ethnic minorities. We will unwaveringly adhere to the basic state policy of family planning and will implement the policy that allows married couples to have two children if one parent is a single child. We must resolutely press ahead with medical reform and work out a Chinese solution to this global problem so that the Chinese people can enjoy a happier and healthier life.

Culture is the lifeblood of a nation. We should foster and practice core socialist values, strengthen civic morality, and advance cultural and ethical progress.

We will continue to deepen reform of the cultural sector, improve policies pertaining to the cultural economy, and enhance China's overall cultural strength and competitiveness. We will deliver basic public cultural services in a standard and equitable way. We will develop culture and arts, the press and publishing, and radio, television and film, and run archives well. We will promote the flourishing of philosophy and the social sciences. We will encourage the people to read.

We will enhance the development of cultural industries and foster a well-regulated market for cultural goods. We will carry forward China's cultural traditions and work to protect cultural relics. We will accelerate the spread of Chinese culture overseas, develop cultural trade, strengthen our international broadcasting capabilities, and enhance China's cultural soft power. We will develop fitness activities for everyone, competitive sports and the sports sector. China has an ancient civilization with a long history, and it can certainly develop a strong modern culture.

We will promote innovation in social governance.

We will focus on law-based governance and involve all parties in social governance. We will make village and community affairs transparent and strengthen democratic oversight over their management, and get social organizations to play a bigger role in delivering public services and exercising social governance.

We will strengthen emergency management, and become better able to ensure public safety, prevent and mitigate disasters and provide disaster relief. We will do our work related to earthquake, meteorology, surveying and mapping well. We will reform the system of handling public complaints made in the form of letters and visits and promptly resolve social problems as they arise. Administrative review will be strengthened.

We will strengthen education in the general knowledge of law and increase legal aid. We will strengthen comprehensive maintenance of public order, crack down hard on violent crimes of terrorism, safeguard China's national security, create good public order, and work together to ensure public security in China.

8. Making coordinated efforts to ensure and improve people's wellbeing

The people are the foundation of a nation, and a nation can enjoy peace only when its foundation is strong. The fundamental goal of a government's work is to ensure that everyone lives a good life. We will continue to build institutions, improve weak links, help those in need of subsistence assistance, ensure everyone has access to basic necessities, and improve people's living standards and quality of life.

Employment is the basis of people's wellbeing. We will steadfastly implement the strategy of giving top priority to employment and carry out a more energetic employment policy, improve the employment and business startup environment, and foster business startups in an innovative way so they create more jobs.

With 7.27 million college students graduating this year, we need to create more jobs, provide non-stop employment and business startup services, and increase the rate of employment and business startup for college graduates.

We will increase support for urban residents who have difficulty finding jobs, ensure that at least one member in every zero-employment family gets a job, and do a good job in resettling and providing reemployment to workers laid off due to the shutdown of outdated production facilities. We will provide coordinated employment services to rural migrant workers and demobilized service personnel. We will work hard to create more rewarding and higher quality jobs so that people who work can live a decent and dignified life.

Income is the source of people's wellbeing. We will deepen reform of the income distribution system and strive to narrow the income gap. We will improve the mechanism for setting and increasing salaries of enterprise employees on a regular basis, encourage collective wage bargaining and make labor relations harmonious. We will strengthen and improve management of executive compensation in SOEs.

We will implement salary reform in government bodies and public institutions, progressively implement a performance-based salary system in public institutions, improve the salary system for medical personnel so that it is compatible with their profession, and improve the mechanism for increasing allowances for working in hardship and remote areas.

We will increase the income of low-income groups through multiple channels and steadily increase the proportion of middle-income earners in the whole population. We will increase both urban and rural incomes in step with economic development so that everyone benefits.

Social security is the foundation of people's wellbeing. We will focus on advancing reform of the social assistance system, continue to raise subsistence allowances to rural and urban residents, implement the system of providing temporary assistance nationwide, provide safeguards to enable extremely vulnerable groups to meet their basic living needs, and improve social services so that people can focus on work.

We will establish a unified basic old-age insurance system for both rural and non-working urban residents and improve the way it is linked with the old-age insurance system for working people. We will reform the old-age insurance system for government bodies and public institutions, and encourage the development of enterprise annuities, occupational annuities and commercial insurance. We will improve the system of unemployment insurance and insurance against workplace injury. We will implement a mechanism for increasing social assistance and social security benefits when the cost of living rises.

We will develop services for the elderly, protect women's rights and interests, care for the wellbeing of young people, better protect minors, meet the basic living needs of families in straits, provide adequate basic public services to the disabled and effectively prevent disabilities, and support the development of charities. We will make sure that everyone in need receives the support of society and feels its warmth.

We will improve the mechanism for providing adequate housing. To achieve the goal of ensuring housing for all, we will build more government-subsidized housing in accordance with the principle of giving targeted guidance, carrying out step-by-step implementation, and having governments at different levels assume their respective responsibilities.

This year, construction of over seven million government-subsidized housing units will begin, more than 4.7 million of which will be in rundown urban areas, and construction of related supporting infrastructure will be strengthened. We will increase the proportion of government-subsidized housing in large cities. We will integrate the operation of public and low-cost rental housing. We will improve mechanisms and instruments for securing investment and financing for policy-related housing and use market forces to provide long-term, steady funding support to cover the costs of building government-subsidized housing.

Governments at all levels should increase spending on building government-subsidized housing, improve its quality, ensure its fair allotment, and improve the mechanism governing its allotment and re-allotment. By the end of this year, 4.8 million units of such housing should be basically completed so that those in urgent need of housing can move in.

We will regulate housing differently in different cities in light of local conditions, increase the supply of small and medium-sized commercial and joint-ownership housing units, curb demand for housing for speculation and investment purposes, and promote sustained and healthy development of the real estate market.

There is nothing more important than human life, so we must always give our full attention to workplace safety. We must strictly enforce laws and regulations on workplace safety, fully implement the responsibility system for it, and resolutely prevent the occurrence of major and very serious work-related accidents.

We will energetically improve and maintain market order, continue to carry out targeted clean-up campaigns, and crack down on the manufacture and sale of counterfeit or shoddy goods. We will institute a monitoring mechanism with full public participation which oversees the whole process from production and processing to distribution and consumption and can trace problems to the source. We will improve safety monitoring systems for food and drugs with the involvement of both central and local governments and participation of community bodies. We will strictly follow laws and regulations and comply with standards, and apply the strictest possible oversight, punishment and accountability to prevent and control food contamination and ensure that every bite of food we eat is safe.