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E-mail China.org.cn, March 10, 2024
People's Daily:
We noted that this year's government work report put forward a lot of new policies and measures to ensure and improve the people's well-being, which we have all been looking forward to. What new benefits will the people receive this year? Can all these promises be fully met given the fact that some local governments are facing fiscal pressure? Thank you.
Huang Shouhong:
Thank you for your questions. Improving the people's well-being is the fundamental purpose of development. This year's report focused on the public's concerns, and put forward a lot of policies and measures. Efforts to ensure and improve the people's well-being are reflected in many places in the report with various requirements.
For example, the overall requirements section and other parts of the report mention improving the people's well-being. In the section on education, the report stressed efforts to improve the conditions in boarding schools in rural areas. There are more than 30 million boarding students in compulsory education nationwide, many of whom are left-behind children. Although the conditions of boarding schools in rural areas have improved remarkably in recent years, many weak links remain. As such, the report emphasized increasing efforts to shore up such weak links so as to ensure these children can attend school and study well.
Regarding medical and health services, the report pointed out that subsidies for basic medical insurance will continue to increase, with government subsidies for basic medical insurance for rural and non-working urban residents increasing by 30 yuan to 670 yuan per person per year. Moreover, regarding difficulties in receiving medical treatment and getting reimbursement, the report noted that efforts will be made to implement and refine the policies on settling medical expenses where they are incurred, to improve medical services with a patient-centered approach, and to promote mutual recognition of medical examination results between hospitals.
Regarding social security, the report pointed out that continued efforts will be made to increase basic pensions for retirees, and the minimum basic old-age benefits for rural and non-working urban residents will be raised by 20 yuan per month. I'd like to briefly introduce this point. Currently, more than 170 million elderly people across the country have been receiving old-age insurance benefits for urban and rural residents. The minimum standard will be raised by 20 yuan this year, an increase of 19.4%, which is the largest increase in recent years.
The report contains a lot more measures to ensure people's well-being, but I will not list them all due to time constraints.
Huang Shouhong:
As mentioned previously, some local governments are facing fiscal pressure. As such, there have been concerns raised about whether there will be sufficient financial support for the measures proposed in the government work report, as well as the reports on budgets, national economic and social development plans, and whether the promises can be fulfilled. The government work report made special emphasis in this regard, and made arrangements accordingly. In the section on proactive fiscal policy, it stressed that it will further improve the structure of government spending, and ensure sufficient funding for major national strategic tasks and efforts to meet people's basic living needs. The central government will increase transfer payments to local governments this year, with its budget being more than 10 trillion yuan. Governments at the provincial level, meanwhile, should allocate more fiscal resources to lower-level governments to ensure that at the primary level, basic living needs are met, salaries are paid and governments function smoothly. The budget report also made detailed arrangements on spending to meet basic living needs, which you may also refer to.
I believe the arrangements for improving the people's well-being made this year will be fully implemented with the concerted efforts by all of us throughout the country. The government work report also emphasized efforts to address inadequacies in public well-being from the perspective of development. This is very important. Improving the people's well-being is also a driving force for economic development. Addressing problems regarding employment, elderly care and medical care will not only improve people's well-being, but also unleash the enormous potential of domestic demand. Therefore, we need to deal with issues regarding people's well-being, such as ensuring elderly care and child care, and facilitating kindergarten and school enrollment of children. As such, we need to increase investment, which will lead to expenditures in other areas. All the measures to ensure and improve people's well-being can be achieved, as we have made sure that the measures and targets are entirely feasible, and the government has studied and formulated supporting measures. While ensuring and improving the people's well-being, our fundamental principle is to do everything we can within our capacity. The government needs to fulfill its responsibility to meet people's basic needs, and provide a cushion for those most in need. On top of this, the government will do its best to improve people's well-being. Thank you.
