China pledges to further improve people's well-being
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Premier Wen Jiabao vowed Friday to further improve the well-being of Chinese people with more efforts in boosting employment, accelerating reform of the pharmaceutical and healthcare systems, and providing good family planning services.
A total of 43.3 billion yuan (6.34 billion U.S.dollars) will be spent to boost employment this year, said Wen in his government work report at the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.
"We will do everything in our power to increase employment," Wen said.
China plans to create over 9 million new jobs in urban areas and keep the urban registered unemployment rate no higher than 4.6 percent, Wen said.
The employment situation this year will "still be serious," he said, while calling for relentless efforts to tackle the problems.
College graduates and rural migrant workers are the top two groups that will be given the most attention, and the government will offer more policy support and employment guidance with strengthened vocational training and improved employment services system, he said.
China created 11.02 million new jobs in urban areas in 2009 amid the lingering financial crisis, while the country's urban unemployment rate stood at 4.3 percent, with 9.21 million people being registered to be unemployed.
The reform of pharmaceutical and healthcare systems will be another focus, according to Wen. The coverage of guaranteed basic medical care will be further expanded and the basic drug system will be installed in more medical institutions.
The State Council passed a long awaited medical reform plan in January 2009, which promised to spend 850 billion yuan by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the country's 1.3 billion population.
Government subsidies on basic medical insurance for non-working urban residents and on the new type of rural cooperative medical care system will rise to 120 yuan per person per year in 2010, up 50 percent over last year, Wen said.
China will also continue to maintain a low birthrate and provide good family planning services for the floating population, he said.
"Only by ensuring and improving people's well-being can we achieve a sustained economic development, a solid foundation for social progress and lasting stability for the country," said Wen.
The Chinese government allocated 44 percent of its 924.3-billion-yuan public investment from the central budget to improve people's well-being last year, mostly to low-income housing, projects to improve the well-being of rural residents and social programs.
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