Box 5: Progress in the Yangtze Economic Belt

We unveiled the Development Plan for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and initiated major construction projects across the board. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was officially opened to traffic. Policies and measures to make it easier for Hong Kong and Macao residents to pursue development on the mainland came into effect and are producing positive results.

We implemented the Guidelines on Supporting Hainan in Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Opening Up. Work began on drawing up a plan for integrated regional development of the Yangtze River Delta.

  3) The quality of new urbanization was enhanced.

Rural household registration holders living in urban areas can now obtain permanent urban residency with greater ease. Permanent residency policies continued to be loosened in large and medium-sized cities, and the residence card system was basically implemented in all cities. The percentage of permanent urban residents reached 59.58%, while the percentage of registered urban residents reached 43.37%, 1.06 and 1.02 percentage points above the figures at year-end 2017 respectively. A group of plans for trans-provincial city clusters were published, city clusters throughout the country showed strong development, and modern metropolitan areas grew rapidly.

 Source: National Bureau of Statistics and National Development and Reform Commission

8. We focused on ensuring and improving the people’s wellbeing and saw they enjoyed more of the fruits of development in a fairer way.

Upholding our vision of people-centered development, we pushed for detailed and effective implementation of a whole raft of initiatives aimed at benefiting the people and addressing prominent problems of public concern.

1) Well-planned steps were taken to keep employment stable.

The Guidelines on Promoting Employment for the Present and Coming Period and the Guidelines on Implementing the Life-Long Vocational Skills Training System were promulgated. We enhanced public employment and business startup services, stepped up support for enterprises to keep employment stable, and continued the pilot projects to support rural migrant workers and others returning home to set up businesses. Programs to guide college graduates in finding jobs and starting businesses also continued. We formulated and unveiled the Guidelines on Providing Extensive Public Employment Services, and made impressive strides in instituting the Internet Plus Public Employment Services model. We introduced the Provisional Regulations on Human Resource Markets, thus opening the way for the gradual establishment of a robust HR market system.

2) Improvements were made to the social security system on a continuing basis.

The central regulation system for enterprise employees’ basic old-age insurance funds formally came into operation. Mechanisms were established to set standards on benefits for rural and non-working urban residents under the basic old-age insurance scheme and to allow for regular adjustment of their basic pension benefits. Steady strides were made in bringing the tasks of collecting and managing social insurance premiums under the remit of a single agency, and regulation in this area was further improved. We continued to make progress in aligning basic medical insurance schemes for rural residents and non-working urban residents. In total, more than 942 million people are now covered by basic old-age insurance schemes, and over 1.344 billion people are covered by basic medical insurance plans.

We improved the national platform for trans-provincial settlement of medical bills through basic medical insurance accounts. We have ensured there are hospitals designated for trans-provincial settlement in all county-level administrative areas, and have seen that rural migrant workers and other workers and business owners without local residency have been incorporated into the platform. The total number of trans-provincial on-the-spot settlements has reached 1.526 million.

Smooth progress was made in the pilot program in integrating maternity insurance and basic medical insurance for urban workers. Unemployment insurance functioned more effectively in terms of ensuring basic living standards, preventing job losses, and promoting employment. Improvements were made to the policies regarding rural migrant workers’ participation in workers’ compensation schemes. The subsistence allowance system continued to improve as we achieved full coverage for urban and rural residents and ensured continuous improvements in allowance standards.

More was done to assist demobilized military personnel in finding employment, and living allowances were raised for demobilized personnel with illness, for war and nuclear-test veterans, and for other entitled groups. The social welfare services system was strengthened, and trials for integrated reforms in social assistance were pushed forward. Steady progress was made in the construction of government-subsidized housing in urban areas, and renovations began on 6.26 million units of housing in run-down urban areas, and an additional 1 million units of public-rented housing were allocated. The housing rental market developed rapidly in large and medium-sized cities. A total of 1.9 million dilapidated houses in rural areas were renovated.

3) Development of a system of standards for basic public services progressed quickly.

The Guidelines on Establishing a Sound System of Standards for Basic Public Services were unveiled, and all provincial-level governments released basic public service lists. Strong progress was made in the five major public service categories of modernizing education, ensuring a healthy population, elevating culture and tourism, promoting fitness among the public, and providing social services for groups that are most in need.

The retention rate of nine-year compulsory education hit 94.2%, and the gross enrollment ratio for senior secondary education reached 88.8%. Government spending on education as a percentage of GDP remained above 4%.

We made rapid progress in developing the Internet Plus Medical and Healthcare model, and stepped up the comprehensive public hospital reform. The national system of essential medicines was improved. Trials for centralizing the procurement and use of medicines made steady progress, and the time it takes to assess and approve new drugs coming into the Chinese market was cut. A zero-tariff policy was applied to all imported cancer treatment drugs, while 17 types of cancer treatment drugs were made available at much lower prices and their costs can now be reimbursed through medical insurance. More measures were quickly taken to address problems pertaining to the safety of vaccines and medicines. The number of beds in medical and healthcare institutions is predicted to have reached 6.05 per 1,000 people.

The Guidelines on the Reform to Better Protect Cultural Relics and Put Them to Better Use were published, and the protection for cultural heritage of all types markedly improved. The Plan for Protecting, Passing On, and Utilizing Grand Canal Culture was drawn up. We continued working to offer free access to more public cultural facilities, unveiled an implementation plan for the initiative to build one million kilometers of fitness walkways, and opened 82,000 new sports venues.

We strengthened social security programs to meet basic needs. A total of 9.4 million people with disabilities facing financial difficulties received living allowances, and 11.64 million people with serious disabilities received nursing care subsidies. Around 398,000 children benefited from the subsistence allowance system for orphans, and medical rehabilitation services were provided to orphaned children with disabilities around the country. Better pre- and post-natal care services were ensured, and the support and care system for women was improved. The public legal service system also continued to improve. A total of 15.23 million babies were born in 2018, bringing the total population at year end to 1.395 billion. The natural population growth rate was 3.81‰.