China on Tuesday released a document outlining its plans for establishing a child-friendly society in the coming years.
The document, titled Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Child-Friendly Society, emphasizes the importance of incorporating children's perspectives into public policy as China endeavors to create an environment conducive to child development.
The initiative aims to enhance public spaces by adding facilities for sports, recreation, leisure, and extracurricular activities, ensuring that neighborhoods, communities, and parks are fully child-friendly.
Additionally, the document focuses on improving policies that provide free or preferential public services for children and strengthening judicial protections of minors, including rigorous legal action against crimes targeting underage individuals.
Previously, 116 cities in China have initiated child-friendly pilot projects, encompassing more than one-third of prefecture-level cities and benefiting over 110 million urban and rural children. This new document aims to transition from pilot projects to a more comprehensive approach to child-friendly development across society.
"The document clearly outlines the tasks and directions of child-friendly development during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period and beyond. It aims to extend the concept of child-friendly development from urban areas to rural regions, addressing social policies, public services, rights protection, growth spaces, and development environments in an integrated manner," said Wei Yifang, an associate researcher at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission.
China unveils document on building child-friendly society
More international service companies have shown strong interest in pursuing new opportunities in the Chinese market, as China continues to open the service sectors.
This was learned from executives who attended the 7th Qingdao Multinationals Summit.
The summit, which just wrapped up in east China's Shandong Province, saw increased participation from multinational corporations in the modern service sector, reaching 20 percent, a record high.
Last year, nine cities were included in China's new batch of comprehensive pilot programs for expanding the opening-up of the service industry, with Qingdao among them.
Running from Monday to Wednesday, the summit attracted a record 357 multinational corporations from 44 countries and regions on its opening day, including 105 Fortune Global 500 companies and 252 industry leaders.
Themed "Multinationals and China: Advancing with the 15th Five-Year Plan for Innovation and Future", the summit serves as a platform for dialogue, investment, and cooperation, offering participants insights into China's economic direction.
Weta Workshop, a New Zealand-based integrated visual effects studio, participated in the production of iconic films such as The Lord of the Rings and the Avatar series. This year, the workshop attended Qingdao Multinationals Summit for the first time, where it announced new cooperation projects with Chinese companies.
"We are working with an incredible company (on a project) called New ZGold, (with) the Zhaojin Group and between New Zealand BIG, Weta Workshop and this wonderful team (are working together). We are developing an IP to hopefully reach an international market for them," said Richard Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Weta Workshop.
China is expanding market access with a focus on the service sector, and is systematically opening up sectors such as telecommunications, the internet, education, culture, and healthcare. The 20 comprehensive pilot programs to expand service-sector opening nationwide provide more options for foreign investment in the service industry.
"We believe that as China continues to expand its high-level opening up to the world, exciting opportunities are emerging across culture, tourism, creative industries and digital technologies. A greater openness will strengthen our cultural experiences and allow us to create a greater level of Chinese story that goes out to the world," Taylor said.
International service companies eye new opportunities in China’s service sector
