Report on the implementation of the 2014 plan for national economic and social development and on the 2015 draft plan for national economic and social development (16)

3) We will become better able to provide public services.

We will create new ways for providing public services, and expand government procurement of public services from nongovernmental sectors. We will continue to develop community-level facilities for employment and social security services. We will continue to improve the basic conditions of badly built and poorly operated schools in poor areas, accelerate the development of education in ethnic minority areas, improve the system for providing aid to students from poor families, ensure that the children of rural migrant workers in cities have the same access to compulsory education as local urban children, advance reform of the school examination and enrollment systems, and speed up the integration of vocational education with industry. We will strengthen special needs education, preschool education, continuing education, and all types of education in areas with concentrations of ethnic minorities. We will encourage nongovernmental sectors to run schools. In 2015, regular institutions of higher learning are planned to enroll seven million undergraduate students and 797,000 graduate students. We will carry out comprehensive reform of county-level public hospitals nationwide, expand comprehensive trial reforms of public hospitals in cities, improve policies and measures that encourage nongovernmental investment in the running of medical institutions, and continue to develop the system of medical services covering both urban and rural areas. We will vigorously develop traditional Chinese medicine and the traditional medicine of ethnic minorities. We will raise annual per capita government subsidies to basic public health services from 35 yuan to 40 yuan, with the entire additional sum in rural areas to be used for paying the basic public health services from rural doctors. We will accelerate development of the system of modern public cultural services, better preserve valuable cultural and natural heritage, and quicken reform and development of the culture industry as well as public cultural initiatives through the press and publishing; radio, film, and television; and literature and art. We will promote the flourishing of philosophy and the social sciences. We will steadily carry out trials for a system of national parks. We will strengthen infrastructure for tourism, and support the development of new models of tourism. We will intensify development of the system for elderly services. We will quickly establish a national database for basic population information. We will build more recovery and care facilities for people with disabilities and facilities for children’s welfare. We will redouble efforts to develop the public service system for promoting national fitness.

4) We will make institutional innovations to strengthen construction of government-subsidized housing.

We will promote the use of direct monetary housing subsidies to people displaced by the rebuilding of run-down areas, and encourage municipal governments to utilize multiple means to increase the supply of public rental housing so that more people in urgent need of housing can find new homes as soon as possible. We will basically complete the renovation of run-down areas in state forestry areas and of dilapidated housing on state forestry farms. In urban areas, work on 4.8 million government-subsidized housing units will be basically completed and construction will begin on an additional 7.4 million units, including 5.8 million units to be rebuilt in run-down areas. We will give targeted guidance and adapt measures tailored to specific local conditions in order to vigorously support the people’s demand for first homes or second homes if their first homes are inadequate, and spur the steady and sound development of the real estate market.

We will strengthen exchange and cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao in areas such as the economy and trade, and basically realize the liberalization of trade in services with the two regions by the end of 2015. We will support Hong Kong in elevating its position as an international financial, shipping, and trade center, and promote the long-term prosperity and stability of its economic and social development as well as the steady improvement of its people’s wellbeing. We will support Macao in becoming a world tourism and leisure center and in building a platform for facilitating business and trade cooperation between China and Portuguese language countries, and will support appropriately diversifying its economy and promoting its sustainable development. We will expand and deepen exchange and cooperation in all fields between the mainland and Taiwan, quickly complete the follow-up talks on the cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, and promote economic integration for the mutual benefit of all.

This year we have an additional important task to perform: on the basis of soliciting a wide range of opinions and drawing on the wisdom of the people, we must formulate the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and complete the preparatory work for submitting it to the Fourth Session of the Twelfth NPC for deliberation.

Fellow Deputies,

Accomplishing all the work for economic and social development in 2015 is an onerous but important task. We will unite even closer around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary, hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, take Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development as our guide, implement the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major speeches, willingly accept the oversight of the NPC, and seek comments and suggestions from the CPPCC National Committee with an open mind. We will pool together our hearts and our energy in striving to achieve all the targets set out in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan and promote sustainable and sound economic and social development.