2. Main expenditures in the central budget

In accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the central leadership, the 2009 budget called for further improving the structure of expenditures, and increasing spending on agriculture, education, medical and health care, social security, employment, low-income housing, science and technology, and environmental protection. In the course of implementing the budget, reserve funds were also used mainly in the aforementioned areas, thereby providing assurances for important expenditures, including central government spending and transfer payments to local governments.

1) Total spending on agriculture, forests, and water conservancy came to 350.124 billion yuan, 101.6% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 79.293 billion yuan or 29.3%. This sum consisted of 31.869 billion yuan of central government spending and 318.255 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. We improved the dynamic mechanism for adjusting general subsidies for agricultural supplies and provided subsidies for superior varieties of rice, wheat, corn and cotton throughout the country; provided subsidies for superior varieties of soybeans throughout the northeast and initiated trials of subsidies for growing potatoes using pre-elite seeds; and provided subsidies for purchasing agricultural machinery and tools in all farming and herding counties of the country. Spending on these subsidies amounted to 112.35 billion yuan. We extended the scope of subsidies for conducting soil testing to determine appropriate fertilizer formulas to all farming counties in the country. We used 6.5 billion yuan to promote the development of modern agriculture. We spent 16.5 billion yuan on comprehensively developing agriculture, including the upgrading of low- and medium-yield cropland, developing 1.773 million hectares of high-grade cropland, and increasing overall grain production capacity by 3.273 million tons. Subsidies to cover the costs of agricultural insurance amounted to 5.97 billion yuan, and 127 million farming households bought agricultural insurance policies. We implemented a poverty alleviation policy for all low-income rural residents, and raised the levels of assistance. Altogether 19.73 billion yuan in subsidies was disbursed to 40.07 million recipients. We spent 116.87 billion yuan on improving infrastructure for rural areas and agriculture. Considerable support was given to the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and other major water conservancy projects. We reinforced 3,970 large and medium-sized reservoirs and dilapidated key small reservoirs. Some 60.69 million rural residents benefited from the Rural Water Safety Project. The area of national public forests funded by the central government through the forest ecological conservation fund was expanded to 69.93 million hectares.

2) Total expenditures on education amounted to 198.139 billion yuan, 100% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 37.769 billion yuan or 23.6%. This sum consisted of 56.762 billion yuan in central government spending and 141.377 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. A total of 66.61 billion yuan was spent on reforming the system for guaranteeing the costs of rural compulsory education. All of the country's approximately 150 million rural students were exempted from paying tuition and miscellaneous fees and supplied with free textbooks. In the central and western regions, around 11.2 million rural students receiving compulsory education whose families have financial difficulties received subsidies enabling them to live in school dormitories. Urban students receiving compulsory education were exempted from paying tuition and miscellaneous fees. The central government supported cities in solving the problem of providing education to 8.8 million children of rural migrant workers, and provided 5.17 billion yuan in subsidies so that children who met local government conditions for school enrollment were exempted from paying tuition, miscellaneous fees, and non-resident surcharges. The policy to link the pay of compulsory education teachers with their performance was steadily implemented. We launched the national project to make primary and secondary school buildings safe, and spent 8 billion yuan on renovating 120 million square meters of school buildings. We spent 1.13 billion yuan on the construction of vocational education training facilities. We exempted tuition for approximately 4.26 million rural students in secondary vocational schools whose families have financial difficulties and students who are studying agriculture-related majors, and provided 2.4 billion yuan in subsidies to cover these costs. A total of 16.23 billion yuan was spent on providing government scholarships and grants to about 4.7 million college students and 11.2 million secondary vocational school students who are outstanding both academically and morally and whose families have financial difficulties. Beginning on September 1, 2009, the standard ordinary scholarship for PhD students at central government institutions of higher learning was raised from 240-280 yuan per month to 1,000 yuan per month. We launched a pilot project to reduce the debt burden of central government institutions of higher learning and provided 10.3 billion yuan for that purpose. We spent 42 billion yuan on the 211 Project and other projects to promote the development of higher education.

3) Expenditures on medical and health care reached 127.714 billion yuan, 108.2% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 42.269 billion yuan or 49.5%. The over-budget amount was mainly concentrated on community-based medical and health care. This sum consisted of 6.35 billion yuan of central government spending and 121.364 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. The central government spent 116.2 billion yuan on supporting the reform of the pharmaceutical and healthcare systems. A total of 830 million people were covered by the new type of rural cooperative medical care system, and 180 million urban residents participated in the basic medical insurance system for non-working urban residents, with subsidies reaching 80 yuan per person. We supported retirees from closed or bankrupt state-owned enterprises who were not covered by medical insurance in subscribing to basic health insurance for local urban workers. We increased medical assistance in both urban and rural areas, and provided financial assistance for urban and rural residents experiencing financial hardship to enable them to subscribe to medical insurance and reduce their burden of medical expenses. We implemented a system for basic drugs in 30% of community-level medical institutions. We improved the community-based medical and health service system, and supported the construction of 29,000 hospitals and 5,000 central hospitals in towns and townships. We set up a sound mechanism for guaranteeing funding for basic public health services in urban and rural areas, and implemented major public health service programs.

4) Expenditures on social security and employment work amounted to 329.666 billion yuan, 98.4% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 55.307 billion yuan or 20.2%. The surplus was mainly from less spending on disaster relief than the budgeted figure at the beginning of 2009. This sum consisted of 45.436 billion yuan of central government spending and 284.23 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. Expenditures on social security came to 290.575 billion yuan, an increase of 41.424 billion yuan or 16.6%. Trials of the new old-age insurance system for rural residents were carried out in 320 counties. Subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents increased by 15 and 10 yuan per month per person respectively, with total expenditures of 54.085 billion yuan. We provided one-off living allowances to over 75.7 million poverty-stricken people in urban and rural areas throughout the country, with expenditures of 9.067 billion yuan. We provided 132.629 billion yuan for old-age pension funds of enterprises, launched pilot projects to fully fund enterprise employees' personal accounts for basic old-age pensions, continued to raise basic pension benefits for enterprise retirees with a focus on special groups, and established a system of basic old-age insurance at the provincial level throughout the country. We increased allowances for entitled groups, bringing total allowances to 17.3 billion yuan.

We implemented a stronger employment policy. Spending on employment work was 39.091 billion yuan (adding spending on employment work listed in other items to this figure, total spending reached 42.621 billion yuan), an increase of 13.883 billion yuan or 55.1%. We substituted work for relief through government financing of public works projects. We helped enterprises with financial difficulties to keep their employment levels stable by allowing them to postpone their payments of contributions to five types of social security for a set period of time, including contributions to basic old-age pensions, and temporarily reduced their contributions to four types of insurance, including unemployment insurance. We continued to implement tax support policies for laid-off workers to become self-employed and for enterprises to provide employment opportunities to laid-off workers. We instituted the policies of reimbursing tuition and granting state education assistance loans to promote the employment of college graduates. We introduced preferential policies for key enterprises and research projects to absorb college graduates in order to keep their employment stable. We improved the employment assistance system for college graduates who have difficulty finding jobs. We launched special vocational training programs for the urban unemployed and 21 million rural migrant workers who had returned to their villages.

5) Expenditures on low-income housing amounted to 55.056 billion yuan, 111.7% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 36.866 billion yuan or 202.7%. Excess spending was mainly due to greater financial support for the construction of low-income housing. This amount consisted of 2.643 billion yuan of central government spending and 52.413 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. A total of 33 billion yuan was used to raise the level of investment subsidies to local governments for building low-rent housing, and intensify the construction of low-rent housing and other low-income housing to solve the housing problems of 2.6 million low-income urban families. We spent 10 billion yuan on accelerating the renovation of run-down areas in state-owned forest regions and land reclamation zones and around coalmines, and helping to solve the housing problems of 1.3 million households. We spent 2.3 billion yuan to carry forward the project to build permanent housing for nomads in ethnic minority areas, and provided 92,000 families with permanent homes. We provided 4 billion yuan in subsidies for expanding pilot projects to renovate dilapidated rural houses to more areas, which benefited 800,000 households.

6) Expenditures on culture, sports, and mass media totaled 32.073 billion yuan, 114.6% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 6.792 billion yuan or 26.9%. Excess spending was largely on public culture in rural areas. This total consisted of 15.475 billion yuan of central government spending and 16.598 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. We vigorously developed non-profit cultural programs and supported free admission to museums, memorial halls, and national patriotic education demonstration centers. The central government granted subsidies to 1,444 museums and memorial halls for this purpose. Implementation of key cultural projects that benefit the people, such as rural reading rooms and the extension of radio and television coverage to all villages, progressed smoothly. We strengthened the protection of major cultural and historical sites, key cultural relics, and our intangible cultural heritage.

7) Expenditures on the reserves of grain, edible oil, and other materials totaled 174.662 billion yuan, 98.1% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 64.789 billion yuan or 59%. This total consisted of 80.543 billion yuan of central government spending and 94.119 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. We provided 15.1 billion yuan in ongoing direct subsidies to grain growers. A total of 72.119 billion yuan was used to strengthen the reserves system to gradually increase the grain and edible oil reserves of the central government and its temporary grain and edible oil reserves, and also to increase the reserves of important materials including nonferrous metals and special steel products by 2.49 million tons. We supported significant increases in minimum grain purchase prices, and spent 9.9 billion yuan to subsidize related interest and expenses. We disbursed 32 billion yuan in subsidies implementing the policy to encourage rural residents to purchase home appliances and motor vehicles including motorbikes and consumers to trade-in old home appliances and motor vehicles for new ones. We used 7.6 billion yuan to promote the development of the logistics services industry and improve the rural logistics system.

8) Expenditures on science and technology came to 151.202 billion yuan, 103.5% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 34.879 billion yuan or 30%. This figure consisted of 143.385 billion yuan of central government spending and 7.817 billion yuan of transfer payments to local governments. We spent 94.676 billion yuan on intensifying basic and applied research, and 32.8 billion yuan on accelerating the development of major science and technology projects. We disbursed 20 billion yuan in technological innovation funds to implement the plan for restructuring and invigorating ten key industries, support 4,441 technological upgrading projects, and promote technological upgrading and independent innovation in enterprises. We promoted the development of regional scientific and technological innovation systems and the intimate integration of enterprises, universities, research institutes, and end-users.