Report on the Work of the Government

6. Strengthening social development and ensuring and improving the wellbeing of the people

The more the economy develops, the more attention we need to pay to strengthening social development and ensuring and improving people's wellbeing.

We will do everything in our power to expand employment. We will continue to implement a more proactive employment policy. This year the central government plans to invest 42.3 billion yuan to assist and promote employment. In light of the workforce structure in China, we will energetically develop labor-intensive industries, service industries, small and micro-businesses and innovative high-tech enterprises, and strive to satisfy the employment needs of different groups of people. We will continue to give top priority to the employment of university graduates and key groups. We will strengthen vocational training and encourage people to start their own businesses. We will strengthen public services for employment, and improve the unified, standardized and flexible human resources market. We will more quickly develop job information networks and achieve nationwide connectivity. We will strengthen the supervision and enforcement of labor safeguards, improve mechanisms for resolving labor disputes, safeguard the rights and interests of workers in accordance with the law, and build harmonious labor relations.

We will adjust income distribution in a reasonable manner. This is both a long-term task, and an urgent issue we need to address now. This year we will concentrate on the following three measures.

First, we will focus on increasing the basic incomes of low-income people in both urban and rural areas. We will steadily increase the minimum wage of workers, basic pensions of enterprise retirees, and subsistence allowances for both urban and rural residents. We will establish a sound mechanism of regular pay raises for workers and strictly enforce the minimum wage system.

Second, we will put more effort into adjusting income distribution. We will raise the individual income tax threshold on salaries, reasonably adjust the tax rate structure, and genuinely reduce the tax burden on low- and middle-income people. We will effectively regulate excessively high incomes, strengthen the dual controls on total wages and wage scales in industries in which incomes are excessively high, and strictly standardize the management of executive pay and bonuses in SOEs and financial institutions.

Third, we will vigorously overhaul and standardize income distribution. We will resolutely prohibit illicit income. We will quickly establish a system for monitoring income distribution. Through unremitting efforts, we will reverse the trend of a widening income gap as soon as possible and ensure that the people share more in the fruits of reform and development.

We will accelerate the improvement of the social security system that covers both urban and rural residents. We will extend the pilot project for the new type of old-age insurance for rural residents to 40% of counties. We will move forward with the trials of old-age insurance for urban residents, solve longstanding problems concerning pensions for retirees of collectively owned enterprises, and put in place a mechanism to regularly adjust the basic pensions of enterprise retirees. We will actively press ahead with the reform of the old-age insurance system for government agencies and institutions. We will include employees of SOEs and collectively owned enterprises who suffer from old work-related injuries in the workers' compensation system. We will improve the subsistence allowance system for both urban and rural residents. We will continue to enlarge the pool of social security funds through multiple channels. Funding for raising and educating orphans and rehabilitating orphans with disabilities will be provided for in the government budget. We will continue to push forward the development of a social security system and a service system for people with disabilities. We will speed up the informationization of social security management. We will get commercial insurance to play a role in improving the social security system. We will also vigorously develop charity programs.

We will resolutely regulate the real estate market. We will act more quickly to improve the long-term mechanisms for regulating the real estate market, focus on solving housing difficulties for low- and middle-income families in urban areas, genuinely stabilize housing prices and meet the reasonable demands of residents for housing.

First, we will build more low-income housing. This year, the total number of units of new low-income housing and units in run-down areas that will undergo renovation will reach 10 million, and 1.5 million dilapidated rural houses will be renovated. We will give priority to developing public rental housing. The central government is allocating 103 billion yuan in this year's budget for subsidies to support this work, an increase of 26.5 billion yuan over last year. Governments at all levels need to raise funds through various channels and substantially increase spending in these areas. We will promptly establish an administrative system for the use, operation and return of low-income housing; increase transparency; and strengthen public oversight to ensure that eligible families benefit from low-income housing.

Second, we will further implement and improve policies for regulating the real estate market and firmly curb the excessively rapid rise of housing prices in some cities. We will formulate and announce an annual housing development plan, designate sites for building low-income housing in the plan for new construction sites, and make sure that all designated sites are used to develop low-income housing. Emphasis will be placed on building more ordinary small and medium-sized commodity housing units. We will standardize and develop the housing rental market. We will strictly implement differentiated housing credit and tax policies, adjust and improve tax policies on real estate, tighten tax collection and administration, and effectively curb the purchase of homes for speculation or investment purposes. We will strengthen monitoring of the real estate market and oversight of market behavior, and strictly deal with all violations of laws and regulations.

Third, we will establish sound evaluation and accountability mechanisms. Provincial governments have general responsibility and municipal and county governments have direct responsibility for stabilizing housing prices and guaranteeing the availability of low-income housing. Relevant government authorities need to more quickly improve inspection, appraisal, admonition and accountability systems. Localities that put insufficient effort into stabilizing house prices and promoting the construction of low-income housing and thereby affect social development and stability will be held accountable.

We will press forward with the reform and development of the pharmaceutical and healthcare fields. This year will be crucial for implementing the three-year plan for reforming the pharmaceutical and healthcare systems, and we need to ensure that all targets are met.

First, we will fully implement the national system for basic drugs at the primary level. We will put in place a sound system to guarantee supplies of basic drugs, strengthen drug oversight, ensure drug safety and genuinely cut drug prices.

Second, we will do a good job in the pilot projects for reforming public hospitals. We will encourage all localities to make bold explorations concerning hospital management systems, the mechanism for setting prices for medical services and oversight mechanisms. We will improve the mechanism for settling medical disputes, and improve relations between hospitals and patients.

Third, we will raise the level of basic medical insurance. We will steadily cover more working and non-working urban residents under the medical insurance system and more farmers under the new rural cooperative medical care system. This year, government subsidies for the new rural cooperative medical care system and medical insurance for non-working urban residents will be increased to 200 yuan per person.

Fourth, we will complete the construction of the three-tiered county, township and village health service network in rural areas and community-based health service agencies in cities. We will increase government expenditures on basic public health services to an average of 25 yuan per person this year. We will strengthen the prevention, control and standardized management of major communicable diseases as well as chronic, occupational, endemic and mental illnesses. We will strengthen work concerning maternity and child health, and continue the trials of conducting free cervical cancer and breast cancer screenings for women and providing necessary medical treatment to those suffering from these diseases. We will conscientiously do the work of preventing and controlling HIV/AIDS. We will vigorously develop traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic minority medicine and implement supporting policies.

Fifth, we will encourage nongovernmental investors to establish medical institutions. We will expand market access for nongovernmental and foreign investors looking to establish medical institutions. We will improve and advance the system whereby doctors are allowed to work in more than one practice, encourage the reasonable flow of doctors between all types of medical institutions, and encourage them to set up community-level clinics in order to provide convenient medical and health services for the masses.

We will comprehensively carry out population and family planning. We will keep the birthrate low. We will do a good job of providing family planning services to and managing the floating population. We will strengthen efforts to prevent birth defects, further expand the pilot projects of free pre-pregnancy checkups, and do a good job ensuring the health of pregnant and post-natal women, infants and preschool children. The rate of hospital deliveries is expected to exceed 95% for women in rural areas. We will implement a new round of the Program for the Development of Women and Children and effectively protect the rights and interests of women and minors. We will accelerate the establishment of a sound social services system for the elderly and intensify the development of nonprofit old-age service facilities.

We will strengthen and make innovations in social administration. We will strengthen the government's social administration functions, extensively mobilize and organize the masses to participate in social administration in accordance with the law, make use of the positive role of social groups, and improve the structure of social administration. With urban and rural communities as the channel and public demand as our guide, we will integrate social administration functions and service resources in the areas of population, employment, social security, civil administration, public health, and culture, and establish effective connections and positive interactions between government administration and primary-level self-governance. We will accelerate the establishment of sound mechanisms for safeguarding people's rights and interests, and for evaluating the risks of administrative decisions and correcting wrong decisions. We will strengthen the work related to the handling of petitioners' letters and visits and step up people's, administrative and legal mediations; expand the channels for people to report on social conditions and popular sentiment; and effectively solve problems that cause great resentment among the masses, such as unauthorized expropriations of arable land and illegal demolitions of houses. We will strengthen and improve the system of public security. We will improve the contingency response system, and enhance society's capacity to manage crises and withstand risks. We will intensify our information security and secrecy, and improve management of information networks. We will improve all facets of public security, and be on high alert for and crack down on all kinds of crime in accordance with the law. We will get enterprises to assume primary responsibility for workplace safety and product quality, and resolutely curb major workplace accidents. We will improve oversight systems and mechanisms for food safety; improve relevant laws and regulations; strictly enforce standards; improve monitoring, evaluation, inspection and testing systems; make local governments assume more oversight responsibility; strengthen oversight and law enforcement; and comprehensively raise our capacity to ensure food safety.

Governments at all levels must pay more attention to social administration and public services and effectively solve the most practical problems of the greatest and most direct concern to the people.