China’s 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) saw significant improvements in various aspects of people’s lives in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu province, thanks to the city’s continuous efforts to accelerate the implementation of a number of projects designed to further improve people’s access to high-quality resources in such sectors as education, health and employment, Nanjing Daily reported.

In the past five years, both the completion rate of nine-year compulsory education and the net enrollment rate of primary-school-age children of the city reached 100 percent. 

Students participate in an archery competition in Nanjing. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Nanjing built eight high schools, 106 primary and junior high schools, as well as 271 kindergartens during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, with these figures rising by 14 percent, 18 percent and 26.8 percent respectively from the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

In an effort to make high-quality education resources benefit more people, the city rolled out multiple measures to facilitate sharing of resources, including helping more students enjoy resources of famous schools.

Five key public high schools, namely Nanjing Foreign Language School, High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University, Jinling High School, Nanjing No.1 High School and Zhonghua High School, were asked to “operate on two sites” so as to cover more students.

In 2017, the High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University Jiangning Campus was encouraged by the government of Jiangning district of Nanjing to help the Nanjing Qingshuiting School in the district improve its education quality, as the latter suffered a drop in the number of students due to the lack of quality education resources.

The High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University Jiangning Campus sent a management team to Nanjing Qingshuiting School, which is now named Qingshuiting School of High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University Jiangning Campus. Both schools have carried out teaching and research activities together. Since it has introduced many special activities of its counterpart, the Qingshuiting School now has a richer curriculum.

What have also been shared among more people in the city are medical services. With continuous improvements in its hierarchical medical system and evaluation system, the city has established 52 medical alliances of different types across the city, making it much easier for people to seek medical services.

Since Nanjing Lishui People's Hospital, in Lishui district of Nanjing, has formed a close medical alliance with Zhongda Hospital Southeast University, a large comprehensive hospital integrating medical treatment, training and scientific research, the latter has helped significantly improve the treatment capacity of Nanjing Lishui People's Hospital by dispatching experts and sharing techniques with its counterpart, according to Mao Qing, executive director of the Department of Cardiology of Nanjing Lishui People's Hospital.

The alliance has saved the life of an 87-year-old citizen surnamed He, who had an immediate operation at a hospital near his home following a sudden heart attack.

“Without these excellent doctors near my home, I have no choice but to express my gratitude now,” said He gratefully.

With 134 community health service centers (including town hospitals), 672 community health service stations (including village clinics), 1.37 hospital beds and 3.8 medical workers for every 1,000 residents, Nanjing has built a “15-minute health service circle” that enables citizens to receive medical services near their homes in 15 minutes.

Nanjing has also made efforts to facilitate employment for college graduates, encouraging them to start their own businesses in the city.

Since last April, the city has taken 10 measures to encourage college graduates to start business, including relaxing restrictions on obtaining household registration, ensuring housing, expanding employment channels, and encouraging enterprises to employ college graduates.

In July 2020, over 100,000 internship opportunities from leading industries and eight industrial lines were provided for graduates with master's or doctoral degrees. Other favorable measures, such as providing subsidies and rewards for employers that hired college graduates with master's or doctoral degrees, have also been taken to attract talents to the city.

According to an official of the Nanjing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, in 2020, the city rewarded companies that didn’t lay off workers.

Last year, Nanjing refunded unemployment insurance premiums of nearly 1.36 billion yuan (about $210.76 million) to more than 150,000 enterprises and exempted 160,000 enterprises from contributions to basic old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and work injury compensation insurance schemes, with the reduced contributions topping 16.56 billion yuan.