National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC): A number of major strategic tasks, major policy initiatives, and major engineering projects in the field of people's livelihood will be proposed.

The State Council Information Office held a press conference at 10 a.m. today. Xiao Weiming, Deputy Secretary General of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), along with relevant officials from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the National Health Commission, introduced policies on further safeguarding and improving people's livelihoods, and answered questions from journalists.

Ministry of Finance: Accelerating the Establishment and Implementation of a Childcare Subsidy System

Ge Zhihao, head of the Social Security Department of the Ministry of Finance, stated at the State Council Information Office press conference that, in terms of services for the elderly and children, the Ministry of Finance actively collaborates with relevant departments to improve the elderly care and childcare service system, promotes community-supported home-based elderly care services, strengthens care services for the disabled elderly, facilitates the high-quality development of inclusive childcare services, and accelerates the establishment and implementation of a childcare subsidy system. Relevant work is being expedited to better meet the people's service needs for the elderly and children.

This year, the national budgetary allocations for education, social security, and employment expenditures are both close to 4.5 trillion yuan.

At the conference, Ge Zhihao introduced that people's livelihoods are closely related to the vital interests of the people. In 2025, fiscal investment in people's livelihoods will be further increased. The national budgetary allocations for education, social security, and employment expenditures are both close to 4.5 trillion yuan, with increases of 6.1% and 5.9%, respectively. Expenditures on health and other areas will also maintain relatively high growth rates, aiming to strengthen the "safety net" for people's livelihoods and continuously enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.

Implementing National Pooling and Adjustment of Pension Insurance, Benefiting Over 300 Million Elderly People

Ge Zhihao stated that the national monthly minimum basic pension standard for urban and rural residents borne by the state finance will be increased by another 20 yuan, and the basic pensions for retirees will also be appropriately raised. To ensure the timely and full payment of these benefits, the central finance will further increase subsidies this year and implement national pooling and adjustment of pension insurance, benefiting over 300 million elderly people.

NDRC Deputy Secretary General: The Central Budgetary Investment Scale Supporting Social Undertakings This Year is Expected to Increase by Over 30% Compared to the End of the 13th Five-Year Plan Period

Xiao Weiming, Deputy Secretary General of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), stated at the State Council Information Office press conference that the central budgetary investment scale supporting social undertakings this year is expected to increase by over 30% compared to the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. While organizing and implementing "hard investment" projects, the NDRC will also accelerate the introduction and implementation of measures for "soft construction," improve the dual-wheel drive of "projects + policies," promote the replacement of mechanisms through investment, and strive to fully realize the benefits of addressing weaknesses, expanding domestic demand, and benefiting people's livelihoods.

A number of major strategic tasks, policy initiatives, and engineering projects in the field of people's livelihood will be proposed.

Xiao Weiming stated that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee. Based on thorough surveys, it will collaborate with various sectors to formulate the "15th Five-Year Plan," proposing a number of major strategic tasks, policy initiatives, and engineering projects in the field of people's livelihood, and integrating the construction of people's livelihood into the national development blueprint for the "15th Five-Year Plan."

Enhance the overall coordination and systematic integration of people's livelihood policies, and improve the policy coordination mechanism.

Xiao Weiming noted that people's livelihood work involves numerous aspects. Strengthening overall coordination and preventing policy fragmentation are essential to achieving a unified approach and joint efforts in advancing this work. The most prominent feature of the "Opinions" is the enhancement of the overall coordination and systematic integration of people's livelihood policies. The main implementing departments of the "Opinions" will strengthen interdepartmental coordination in three aspects: first, strengthening the guiding role of development plans and enhancing the strategic orientation of national development plans; second, improving the policy coordination mechanism and leveraging the coordinating role of comprehensive departments; third, balancing "hard investments" and "soft constructions."

Focus on key issues in people's livelihood and propose targeted policies to ensure that the general public feels a tangible sense of gain.

Xiao Weiming stated that the "Opinions on Further Ensuring and Improving People's Livelihood and Addressing Urgent Needs and Concerns of the Masses" propose not only enhancing fairness and balance in institutional construction such as strengthening social security and providing basic public services but also focusing on key issues in people's livelihood, such as ensuring access to quality education, healthcare, affordable elderly care and childcare services, and diversified social services. Targeted policy initiatives will be proposed to ensure that the general public feels a tangible sense of gain. Xiao Weiming cited examples, noting that to address the issue of increasing income for low-income rural populations, the "Opinions" clearly propose implementing actions to enhance skills and increase income for low-income rural populations. This involves promoting industrial development to facilitate employment, improving skills, strengthening development-oriented assistance, and helping low-income populations achieve prosperity through their own efforts. To ensure that basic pension insurance benefits urban and rural residents and improve the level of protection, the "Opinions" clearly propose optimizing the contribution tier settings for basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents, reasonably determining the level of contribution subsidies, and appropriately increasing the flexibility of contributions. Additionally, the "Opinions" propose orderly promoting the cross-provincial pooling of personal accounts in the basic medical insurance for employees, allowing more insured employees to transfer funds across provinces to relatives participating in basic medical insurance.

Ministry of Education: Gradually achieve full coverage of standardized construction of compulsory education schools within about five years.

Guo Peng, Director-General of the Department of Development Planning at the Ministry of Education, stated that in the field of basic education, the Ministry of Education will further improve the mechanism for coordinating and allocating educational resources in response to demographic changes, focusing on three main aspects. The first is "expanding the total capacity." We will focus on the prominent issue of insufficient high school places and build, renovate, or expand over 1,000 high-quality regular high schools. The second is "improving quality." We will gradually achieve full coverage of standardized construction of compulsory education schools within around five years. By implementing the "Yunnan Zhenxing Lead Industry Co., Ltd. {{Company}} Plan for County High Schools," we will focus on improving the basic schooling conditions and enhancing the educational standards of regular high schools in counties. The third is "promoting equity." We will reasonably plan the enrollment scales of regular high schools and secondary vocational schools, accelerate the expansion of the proportion of high-quality regular high school enrollment indicators allocated to schools, primarily distributing them to junior high schools within the region based on student numbers, and giving priority to rural and other schools. We will promote the enjoyment of equal rights for eligible agricultural migrant populations as those with household registration in the destination areas.

We will coordinate the use of central budgetary investments and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support universities in continuously improving their schooling conditions.

Guo Peng stated that in the field of higher education, this year's undergraduate enrollment expansion in "Double First-Class" universities is good news for students who have just taken the college entrance examination. Next, we will focus on promoting the improvement and expansion of higher education in three aspects. The first is "improving conditions." We will coordinate the use of central budgetary investments and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support universities in continuously improving their schooling conditions. The second is "optimizing structure." We will promote the appropriate allocation of new higher education resources to populous provinces in central and western China. We will support the establishment of new-type research universities and high-level Sino-foreign cooperative education institutions. The third is "integrating industry and education." We will guide universities to improve the mechanism for adjusting academic disciplines and majors based on the needs of economic and social development, strengthen practical training in industries and enterprises, and enhance students' employability and entrepreneurial capabilities.

Ministry of Civil Affairs: Actively Promoting the Introduction of the Social Assistance Law to Provide Legal Support for Basic Livelihood Security

Zhang Wei, head of the Social Assistance Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, stated at a State Council Information Office press conference that strengthening support for low-income groups is an important measure to ensure and improve basic livelihoods and address the urgent needs and concerns of people in difficulty. Next, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will further improve the social assistance system and mechanisms, strengthen policy implementation, and promote the fairer, more balanced, and sustainable implementation of various assistance and support measures for people in difficulty. Firstly, we will further expand the monitoring scope and accelerate the construction of a national dynamic monitoring information platform for low-income populations. At the same time, we will actively promote the introduction of the Social Assistance Law to provide strong legal support for basic livelihood security. Secondly, we will further strengthen digital empowerment, emphasize targeted assistance, and formulate methods for identifying low-income populations and verifying the economic status of low-income families. We will strengthen the sharing and comparison of social assistance information. Finally, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will further strengthen organizational coordination, give full play to the role of coordination mechanisms such as the joint meetings of social assistance work leading groups at all levels, strengthen the connection between government assistance and charitable support, and form the greatest possible assistance synergy.

Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security: Lifting Residency Restrictions for Flexible Workers to Participate in Social Insurance in Their Place of Employment

At a press conference, Zhai Yanli, Director of the Social Insurance Administration Center of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, stated that they will continue to deepen reforms in accordance with the requirements of the "Opinions," promote high-quality expansion of social insurance coverage, and focus on flexible workers, migrant workers, individuals in new forms of employment, and college graduates when formulating social insurance policies that better suit new employment patterns and income characteristics. They will implement the lifting of residency restrictions for flexible workers to participate in social insurance in their place of employment, adopt more flexible methods for social insurance contributions, and actively guide eligible flexible workers to participate in enterprise employee pension insurance in their place of employment or their place of household registration. They will steadily and orderly expand the pilot program for occupational injury insurance for individuals in new forms of employment, gradually expanding the pilot scope by improving policies such as premium rates.

National Health Commission: Increasing the Supply of Inclusive Childcare Services Through Multiple Channels

At a State Council Information Office press conference, Zhuang Ning, Director of the Department of Planning, Development, and Informatization of the National Health Commission, stated that in the next step, they will continue to adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and increase the supply of inclusive childcare services through multiple channels in three aspects. In terms of accelerating the construction of an inclusive childcare service system, they will build a "1+N" childcare service system with a comprehensive childcare service center as the hub and a network of childcare institutions, community-embedded childcare, kindergarten-based childcare, employer-provided childcare, and family childcare points to enhance inclusive childcare services. In terms of vigorously developing integrated childcare and early childhood education services, they will summarize local experiences and practices, coordinate resources for childcare services for children aged 0-6, improve supporting measures, support eligible kindergartens to offer childcare classes, and promote the coordinated and sustainable development of preschool education and childcare services. In terms of effectively improving the quality of childcare services, they will promote the support of medical institutions for the development of childcare services, guide various regions to advance the standardized and professional development of childcare services through measures such as renovating facilities and equipment of childcare service institutions, conducting quality assessments, providing personnel training, and implementing safety inspections, while ensuring safety and health standards.