Report on the implementation of the 2014 plan for national economic and social development and on the 2015 draft plan for national economic and social development (6)

6. We safeguarded and improved people’s wellbeing and ensured social harmony and stability.

We focused our energies on meeting basic needs, helping those in the greatest difficulty, and improving institutional building related to people’s wellbeing. We remained committed to doing everything in our power to increase funding for areas related to people’s wellbeing, despite facing serious budgetary constraints.

1) Incomes continued to rise.

We deepened the reform of the income distribution system; promoted the growth of rural incomes through multiple channels; raised basic pension benefits for enterprise retirees for the tenth consecutive year; and built up synergy between measures to boost incomes and employment policies, to the benefit of the general public. Nationwide per capita disposable income increased by 8% in real terms. Rural per capita disposable income rose by 9.2% and urban per capita disposable income by 6.8%, both in real terms. The ratio of urban disposable income to rural net income per capita dropped to less than 3:1 for the first time in 13 years.

2) The social safety net continued to branch out.

Social security coverage was comprehensively expanded. A total of 366 million urban residents have been brought under the coverage of the basic old-age insurance; and 477 million rural residents have been covered by the new type of rural old-age insurance. We implemented a unified basic old-age insurance system for rural and nonworking urban residents, and raised the level of basic pension benefits provided under the system, benefiting 143 million elderly people. The rates of participation in the basic medical insurance systems for working and nonworking urban residents and the new rural cooperative medical care system all stood above 95%. We did our utmost to provide post-disaster relief and assistance to Ludian and Jinggu, which both were hit by earthquakes, and to other areas hit by major natural disasters. Post-disaster recovery and reconstruction efforts progressed in an orderly fashion.

3) Solid progress was made in the construction of government-subsidized housing.

Making use of central government expenditure, corporate debt financing, and credit funds, we provided additional support to government-subsidized housing projects such as the rebuilding of run-down areas. Construction on 5.11 million government-subsidized housing units was essentially completed, and construction on an additional 7.4 million units commenced.

4) Progress in social programs was registered across the board.

We continued to improve the basic conditions of badly built and poorly operated schools providing compulsory education in poor areas. Projections put the retention rate of nine-year compulsory education at 92.6% and the gross enrollment ratio for senior secondary education at 86.5%. The proportion of rural students admitted to key colleges and universities continued to increase. We further improved the public health system and began to install a standardized training system for resident physicians. A policy of allowing couples to have two children if either parent is an only child was implemented throughout the country. We accelerated the development of public cultural services and basically completed the initiative to extend radio and television coverage to every village in the country. The total number of domestic tourist trips made last year reached 3.61 billion, up 10.7% over the previous year. Outbound trips exceeded 100 million for the very first time. We launched major projects in fitness and elderly care, and increased the number of nursing home beds to 26 per 1,000 elderly people. The sports industry and sports consumption developed at an accelerated rate, with 67,000 new sports venues being built. We continued to improve recovery and care services for the disabled. The number of service facilities for the disabled is estimated to have reached 3,867.

In view of the performance of the targets projected in the plan, overall targets for the national economy, such as the economic growth rate, the consumer price index, the balance of payments, and employment levels, remained within the proper range; some targets that reflect economic structure and quality were further improved; targets concerning social development and people’s wellbeing kept a positive momentum; and targets concerning resource conservation and environmental protection were implemented satisfactorily. Overall, the planned targets were well met.