8. We will strengthen the development of social programs and strive to better balance economic and social development.

1) We will continue to place a high priority on education. We will implement the national program to ensure the safety of primary and secondary school buildings and make progress in the standardization of rural primary and secondary schools. We will continue the project to renovate buildings at rural junior secondary schools in the central and western regions, strengthen training of primary and secondary school teachers in the two regions, and improve policies and measures to help migrant workers in cities send their children to school and promote balanced development of compulsory education. We will accelerate development of secondary vocational education, particularly in rural areas. Beginning in 2009, secondary vocational education will be free for students from poor rural families and for all students enrolled in agriculture-related programs. We will continue to improve the infrastructure of county-level vocational education centers and secondary vocational schools and build more special education schools in the central and western regions. The third phase of the 211 Project and the May 1998 Project for higher education will be implemented. The secondary gross enrollment ratio is expected to reach 77 percent, and plans call for enrolling 6.29 million undergraduate students and 475,000 graduate students in regular institutions of higher learning in 2009.

2) We will energetically strengthen public medical and health care services. We will further improve the system of public health services, and improve our ability to prevent and control serious diseases and to forecast, give early warning against and deal with public health emergencies. We will improve the urban and rural systems of community-level medical and health care services, continue to support development of the county, township, village three-tier rural health service network and community-level family planning service system, and develop community-based health service agencies in cities. We will intensify development of key traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals and bases for TCM clinical research. We will increase the reward to rural women at or above the age of 60 who have complied with family planning regulations from 600 yuan to 720 yuan per person. We will fully implement the "lower birthrate equals faster prosperity" pilot project, implement the policy of granting subsidies to rural women giving birth in hospitals, carry out measures to prevent birth defects in all rural areas, and provide routine gynecological examinations for rural women.

3) We will vigorously develop culture, radio, television, film, the press and publishing, sports and tourism. We will strengthen the system of public cultural services, especially the building of community public cultural facilities. We will carry forward development of multipurpose cultural centers in towns and townships, and continue the projects to extend radio and television coverage to all villages and show movies in the countryside, and the Tibet-Xinjiang Project to extend radio coverage in the western region. We will promote the flourishing of philosophy and the social sciences. We will strengthen protection of cultural and natural heritage sites, do a good job ensuring that people can visit public museums and memorial halls free of charge, and improve relevant mechanisms. We will energetically develop emerging cultural industries. We will continue to carry out the sports and fitness program for rural residents and promote the sound development of sports at the community level. We will intensify development of tourism infrastructure and complete the task of developing key tourist sites concerning the early history of the CPC.