V. Vigorously Developing Social Undertakings and Building a Harmonious Society

We must adopt a scientific outlook on development and implement the strategy of reinvigorating our country through science, education and trained personnel and the strategy of sustainable development to accelerate the development of social undertakings. We will strive to solve outstanding problems vital to the immediate interests of the people, safeguard social stability and build a harmonious socialist society.

1. Energetically working to develop science and technology, education, culture, health and sports, and promoting spiritual civilization. We will accelerate reform and development of science and technology. We will promulgate a national program for medium- to long-term scientific and technological development this year. We will continue the work of establishing a national innovation system. We will strengthen basic research and research in strategic hi-tech fields and important technologies for non-profit application. We will continue work on a set of major science and technology projects and devote more effort to tackling problems in key technologies. We will move forward with the development of major science and technology infrastructure projects and key national bases for scientific research. We will deepen the reform of the science and technology system, and accelerate the establishment of a management system, an innovation mechanism and a modern system of research institutes that are compatible with our socialist market economy. Enterprises need to play a key role in technological innovation. We will strengthen cooperation among industries, universities and research institutes to promote application of scientific and technological advances in production. We will continue to attach equal importance to the social and natural sciences and further develop philosophy and the social sciences.

We will genuinely make education a strategic priority. Focusing on improving compulsory education in rural areas, we will improve the mechanism to ensure funding for education, with government investment as the mainstay. We will continue to implement the plan to make nine-year compulsory education basically universal and basically eliminate illiteracy among young and middle-aged adults in the western region. Starting this year, students from poor farmers' families receiving compulsory education in key counties included in the national plan for poverty alleviation through development will be provided with free textbooks and exempted from paying miscellaneous fees, and those staying on campus will receive living allowances. We will extend this policy throughout the country's rural areas by 2007 to ensure that all students from poor families can go to school and receive compulsory education. We will work hard to provide schooling to the children of migrant workers in cities. We will strive to improve the quality of higher education. Great efforts will be put into developing vocational education of all types. We will fully implement the Party's education policy by strengthening moral education and promoting competence-oriented education to ensure that students develop in an all-round way. We will accelerate reform and innovation in the course content and methods of instruction, reduce the study burden on students and speed up the development of modern distance education. We will continue to promote the sound development of privately run schools. We will rigorously standardize the enrollment and fee systems of all types of schools and tighten their financial management and oversight.

We will accelerate the reform and development of health care. This year we will complete development of the system for disease prevention and control and basically complete the medical system for handling public health emergencies. We need to truly focus our medical and health care work on rural areas, upgrading the health care infrastructure and raising the overall level of medical personnel there. We will continue the pilot project for a new system of cooperative medical and health care services in rural areas and explore ways to set up a medical assistance system. We will work harder to prevent and control serious infectious diseases, endemic diseases and occupational diseases. We will conscientiously implement measures related to AIDS prevention and the treatment and care of HIV carriers and AIDS patients to firmly stop the spread of AIDS. We will carry out experimental reforms of the urban medical service system. We will strengthen urban community health services and energetically develop traditional Chinese medicine. We will deepen the rectification and standardization of fees for medical services and prices for medicines to solve the problem of inadequate and overly expensive medical services.

We will continue research on the population development strategy, maintain the family planning policy, and keep the birthrate low to improve the quality of our population. We will expand the system for rewarding and supporting rural families that observe the family planning policy and extend the "have fewer children and prosper quicker" project for alleviating poverty on a trial basis in more areas. We will do our work related to the elderly well, and we will take an interest in and support programs to help the disabled.

We will energetically develop an advanced socialist culture. We will emphasize ideological and moral development and promote a patriotic national spirit, a reformist and innovative spirit of the times, and a collectivist and socialist ideology. We will intensify the ideological and moral education of minors and the ideological and political education of college students. We will promote reform of the cultural system and innovation in cultural mechanisms and accelerate the development of cultural undertakings and industries. We will continue to ensure that cultural undertakings flourish, while carefully managing them. We will develop literature, art, the press, publishing, radio, TV and film, and strengthen development and management of the Internet. We will accelerate primary-level cultural development in rural areas and expand radio and TV coverage with the goal of reaching all villages. We will launch mass activities to cultivate spiritual civilization. We will fight unremittingly against pornographic and illegal publications. We will widely initiate fitness programs for the general public. We will continue working hard to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

We will intensify development of a skilled, diversified and multilevel workforce, focusing particularly on training, attracting and properly using high-level and highly skilled personnel. We will promote the rational flow of human resources and strengthen legislation concerning the human resources market.

2. Creating more jobs, improving social security work and raising people's living standards. We will continue to follow a proactive employment policy, conscientiously implement all policies and measures to support reemployment, and expand their coverage to workers laid off from collectively owned enterprises. This year, 10.9 billion yuan will be allocated from the central budget for reemployment work, 2.6 billion yuan more than last year. Local budgets will also increase reemployment allocations. We will increase employment guidance, training and services. We will make overall arrangements to help urban dwellers entering the job market for the first time, college graduates, demobilized servicemen and surplus rural laborers find employment. We will strengthen oversight over job security work.

We will speed up development of the social security system. We will improve the system of basic old-age insurance for enterprise employees. While retaining the practice of combining contributions from various sources in society with personal employee retirement accounts, we will ensure that personal retirement accounts are fully funded in more areas on a trial basis. We will incorporate subsistence allowances for workers laid off from state-owned enterprises into the unemployment insurance system. The longstanding problem of workers being laid off from state-owned enterprises will be basically solved in most areas of the country this year. People laid off by enterprises in the future will gradually be incorporated directly into the unemployment insurance system or urban subsistence allowance program in accordance with the law. We will expand coverage of social programs for old-age, unemployment, medical care and work-related injury benefits in accordance with the law by incorporating more self-employed individuals and employees of private and foreign-funded enterprises into the social insurance system and improving methods for including persons without fixed employment in it. We will intensify efforts to collect social security contributions and gradually turn over management to higher-level authorities. We will work out a plan for reforming the retirement pension system in government bodies and institutions. We will improve the system of subsistence allowances for urban residents, and areas where conditions permit may establish a system of subsistence allowances for rural residents. We will take good care of those injured and the families of those killed in the service of their country. We will also support the development of charities.

We will continue to increase the incomes of urban and rural residents, especially low- and middle-income people. We will adopt a variety of measures to keep farmers' incomes rising. A mechanism will be promptly set up to ensure migrant workers in cities get paid on time and in full, and the work of getting their back wages paid to them will be continued. All enterprises should strictly obey the minimum wage system, pay all wages in full and on time, and raise wages as performance improves. The salary system for public servants will be reformed and standardized.

We will continue reforming the system of income distribution. We will rectify and standardize the way income is distributed, strive to improve the personal income tax system, regulate income distribution more closely, gradually achieve a more balanced income distribution, and work hard to narrow excessive income gaps between some members of society, in order to promote social justice.

We will pay close attention to the basic living problems of urban and rural residents with financial difficulties. Development of community-based relief systems for urban and rural residents with special difficulties needs to be accelerated in all localities to help them pay for medical treatment, housing and schooling for their children. The system for providing food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses for childless and infirm rural residents will be improved. We will increase investment in poverty alleviation to help people in poverty-stricken areas cast off poverty and become prosperous. We will reduce or exempt taxes for disaster-afflicted areas and provide relief to disaster victims who have difficulties in production and daily life.

3. Strengthening democracy and the legal system and safeguarding social stability. We will energetically yet prudently promote political restructuring and develop socialist democracy. We will further expand democracy and improve the democratic system at the primary level. We will do our legislative work well, focusing on strengthening legislation to improve macroregulatory mechanisms, to respond to emergencies and to protect workers' legitimate rights and interests. We will press ahead with reform of the judicial system and safeguard judicial impartiality. Governments at all levels must support judicial and procuratorial organs in exercising their respective power independently in accordance with the law. We will increase publicity and education concerning the law. We will do a good job of providing legal services and legal assistance. The legitimate rights and interests of women, minors and the disabled will be protected as prescribed by law.

We will fully implement the Party's policies on ethnic minorities. We will uphold and improve the system of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities and consolidate and develop socialist relations among ethnic groups based on equality, solidarity and mutual assistance in order to promote the common prosperity and progress of all our ethnic groups. We will fully implement the Party's basic principles guiding our work relating to religious affairs, conscientiously implement the Regulations on Religious Affairs and do all related work well in the new circumstances. We will further improve our work relating to overseas Chinese affairs.

We will pay close attention to social stability. We will handle conflicts among the people correctly, solve problems they report promptly and appropriately, and rectify situations detrimental to their interests in accordance with the law. We will conscientiously implement the Regulations on People's Letters and Visits and improve the work of handling these letters and visits. We will develop a sound mechanism for mediating and settling social conflicts and disputes, improve the system of early warning and the mechanism for prompt response to emergencies to ensure social stability, and work vigorously to forestall and properly deal with mass disturbances. We will improve all facets of public security and vigorously carry forward the development of a crime prevention and control system. We will severely crack down on all kinds of crime in accordance with the law, in particular crimes threatening state security, violent crimes, crimes committed by Mafia-like gangs, drug-related crimes and frequently occurring crimes against property to give people a stronger sense of security. We will improve our ability to safeguard public security and deal with emergencies to reduce losses caused by natural disasters, disastrous accidents and other emergencies. We will raise the people's awareness of state security and develop a mechanism for safeguarding state security.

Since last year many catastrophic accidents have occurred in some areas and industries. These resulted in heavy loss of life and property. We must draw on the bitter lesson they taught us and adopt still more effective measures to improve our work to ensure production safety. We must strictly enforce the system of responsibility for production safety, strengthen safety supervision, and intensify inspection and law enforcement related to production safety to remove all kinds of hazards and prevent and minimize the occurrence of catastrophic accidents. We should now give top priority to coalmining safety by improving the systems and mechanisms for ensuring coalmining safety, giving more play to the role of workers in overseeing production safety, investing more in coalmining safety facilities and improving coalmining safety technology. The State Council has decided to spend 3 billion yuan this year to help state-owned coalmines upgrade their safety technologies. Local governments and coalmines must also invest more in coalmining safety. We must have a strong sense of responsibility to the people and truly make coalmining safer.