CCTV:

I have a question regarding people's well-being. We have noticed that this year's government work report has introduced many new policy measures in areas such as education, health care and social security. Could you please elaborate on this? Thank you.

Shen Danyang:

I'll answer this question. People's well-being is a subject of great public concern. As I mentioned just now, this year's report places special emphasis on it. Ensuring and improving people's well-being is a long-term endeavor. There is no finish line, only a succession of new starting points. Judging from the review and discussion of the report by NPC deputies and members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference over the past two years, livelihood-related revision suggestions have been the most numerous. This reflects how much people expect progress on well-being issues each year. This year's report focuses on addressing people's most pressing concerns, proposing more robust and compassionate measures, while giving greater prominence to the livelihood section and further underscoring its importance. Due to time constraints, I can only list a few.

In terms of education, the report focuses on improving fairness and quality, covering education work at all levels and of all types. For example, regarding preschool education, this year we will continue to implement the policy of one year of free preschool education — commonly referred to as free enrollment in the senior class of kindergarten. How will the resulting loss of revenue for kindergartens be addressed? Subsidies will be provided by both central and local government budgets, with the central government bearing the larger share. This year, funding allocated to support preschool education development has increased significantly, rising by 37.8%, to ensure the smooth implementation of this people-oriented policy. As another example, regarding senior secondary education, this year's report clearly states that the supply of regular senior high school places will be increased. Specifically, in county towns and central urban areas with sustained net population inflow, regular senior high schools will be planned and built on a rolling annual basis. In areas facing temporary shortages of school places, priority will be given to renovating and expanding existing teaching buildings, student dormitories and cafeterias. In fact, some localities had already made arrangements for this work at the start of the year. If you have been following the local "two sessions," you may have noticed that many provinces have taken action on this front. For example, Guangdong has proposed adding more than 200,000 regular high school places, while Hunan plans to expand the number of high-quality regular high school public places by 80,000. These measures will significantly increase students' opportunities to receive high-quality senior secondary education. This is a genuine, concrete matter that directly affects people's well-being.

In terms of health care, the report has put forward a range of supportive measures. For example, strengthening medication coordination at the primary care level means improving the essential medicine list, optimizing the channels for medicine supply and coordination between primary and higher-level medical institutions, and making it more convenient for people to access medicines near their homes. Another example is that the report has, for the third consecutive year, outlined plans to support the development of innovative drugs. This year, the government will strengthen coordinated policy support across the full chain, further address difficulties such as the limited hospital access for innovative medicines and better meet people's diversified medical and medication needs.

In terms of social security, this year's report has proposed continuing to raise the minimum standard for basic pensions for urban and rural residents. This policy will benefit more than 180 million elderly people. The central government will allocate 1.25 trillion yuan in subsidy funds to ensure pensions are paid in full and on time. To address the inadequate protection of rights and interests for workers in new forms of employment, this year's report has proposed steadily and orderly expanding the pilot program for occupational injury protection. This year, the pilot will be expanded to cover all 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, with platform enterprises in the ride-hailing, instant delivery and same-city freight sectors also brought within the pilot scope. This will help ensure the occupational safety of more workers, including food delivery couriers and ride-hailing drivers.

There are many other measures which I will not go into one by one here. Thank you.