China will continue to intensify its endeavors to further safeguard and improve people's well-being during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030), Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said Friday.
The country will take more steps to deliver real benefits to the people and further expand services in areas such as education, health care, and employment, Zheng said at a press conference on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress.
The official said that over the next five years, China will build about 1,000 closely integrated medical and health consortia at the county level, enabling basic medical and health services to be accessed close to home.
China will strive to raise the coverage rate of community elderly care service institutions and facilities to over 70 percent during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, according to Zheng.
The move aims to address home-based elderly care needs, remedy gaps in elderly service facilities in aging residential communities, and promote community services such as meal supply, medical assistance, and emergency aid.
To address the needs of seniors with functional disabilities and dementia, China will also support equipment renewal in elderly care institutions, renovate and upgrade 2,000 public elderly care institutions, and strive to increase the share of nursing beds in elderly care institutions to over 73 percent in the next five years, Zheng said.
For children under the age of three, the country will support the establishment of at least one comprehensive childcare service center in each prefecture-level city over the next five years, with a focus on providing affordable and high-quality childcare services, according to the official.
He also said that in terms of compulsory education, the goal is to enable more children to receive quality education. This year, the number of junior secondary school–age students is expected to reach its peak.
In addition, China plans to build or renovate 1,000 regular senior high schools and add more than two million student places from 2026 to 2030, he said.
China will also support the country's top-class universities in increasing undergraduate enrollment by more than 100,000 places over the next five years, Zheng said.
At the same time, for vocational education, the goal over the next five years is to build 500 new high-level training bases integrating industry and education, he added.
"China's manufacturing and service sectors are poised to grow by over 40 trillion yuan (about 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars) in value, and are expected to create over 10 million jobs each year from 2026 to 2030. We will take a wide range of steps to ensure public well-being. [We will] work to expand social security coverage among rural migrant workers as well as people in flexible employment and new forms of employment, thus addressing the concerns of takeaway delivery riders, couriers, and other groups," Zheng said.
China to step up efforts to improve people's well-being during 15th Five-Year Plan: official
