China to step up efforts to improve people's well-being during 15th Five-Year Plan: official

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

China is set to further deepen its high-standard financial opening up with a commitment to market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized principles, People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng said Friday.

The scale of foreign participation in China's financial markets has reached historic milestones, according to Pan, who spoke at a press conference on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC).

"The level of financial opening up continues to rise. By the end of last year, the total value of domestic RMB-denominated financial assets -- including stocks, bonds, deposits, and loans -- held by overseas institutions and individuals exceeded 10 trillion yuan. In 2025 alone, various governments, international development agencies, financial institutions, and large enterprises issued over 170 billion yuan in Panda bonds. The outstanding amount of Panda bonds has increased by 34 percent year on year," said the central bank governor.

Beyond asset holdings, the Renminbi's role as a global currency has been further solidified. It is now not only a preferred choice for China's own external transactions but also a vital component of the global financial architecture, according to Pan.

"Calculated on a comparable basis, the RMB has become the largest settlement currency for China's external receipts and payments. Globally, it ranks as the second-largest trade finance currency and the third-largest payment currency. Its weight in the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency basket also ranks third. This progress has facilitated cross-border trade and investment while helping to reduce exchange rate risks and conversion costs," he said.

Looking ahead, the central bank is committed to a steady expansion of high-standard financial opening-up to serve the country's high-quality development and foster a more resilient global financial governance system, said Pan.

"We will continue to promote high-standard opening up of financial services and markets. Adhering to market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized principles, we will enhance the transparency, stability, and predictability of our financial opening-up policies. We will further improve the interconnectivity between domestic and overseas financial markets and cross-border payment systems to enhance the convenience of trade and investment. Furthermore, we will advance RMB internationalization in an orderly manner, develop offshore RMB markets, support the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center, and consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as a global financial hub," he said.

China to further expand financial opening up: central bank governor