Premier Li Keqiang chaired a State Council executive meeting on Feb 11 in Beijing which spelt out tasks to ensure better conditions and healthcare for economically challenged citizens in winter and spring.

Further efforts are needed for identifying citizens in need, priority should be given to residents who are victims of natural disasters, and assistance should be raised for people suffering serious diseases, the meeting decided.

Priority tasks laid out by the meeting include expanding the reach of assistance, raising the level of quality of the assistance, focusing on help for urgent or major difficulties, and strengthening overall planning and coordination.

Improve industrial standards

The meeting also decided on measures for raising the standards of China’s industries to boost economic quality and efficiency.

China should optimize the standards system, work on improving standards management and make changes to address weak management and low levels of existing standards, the meeting said.

The decision to boost the standards of industries include instructions to:

— work on the improvement of relevant laws and regulations; implement effective evaluation of standards; strengthen supervision, inspection and administrative law enforcement to crack down on illegal or irregular action; and make standards a compulsory requirement for quality;

— conduct a comprehensive review and revamp of existing standards at national, sectoral and local levels; integrate compulsory standards of various levels; and establish unified national compulsory standards in areas of public interest, such as health, safety and environmental protection;

— encourage academies, associations, chambers and industrial technological alliances to stipulate and release standards to better meet the demand of the market and innovation; allow enterprises to stipulate and implement their own standards for products and services; and establish a disclosure system for enterprises’ standards.

— strengthen internationalization of standards; further ease curbs on foreign-owned businesses’ participation in China’s standards stipulation so that standards are set higher through effective market competition; and strive for Chinese standards to gain global acceptance.

Land management

Studies have been made on strengthening land management and protection to better provide support for economic development. Relevant departments have conducted comprehensive auditing of transfer of land as well as the protection of arable land.

The meeting called for “strong measures” to look into officials held accountable for errors of omission or commission; tackle government misdeeds such as irregular management of income and expenditure regarding land transfer, and correct omissions reflected by land lying unused for long.

Responsibility for protecting arable land should be clearly assigned; and management of income and expenditure from land transfer should be strengthened, the meeting said.

The meeting also ordered greater efforts in using existing land; advancing the progress of major programs and projects; to make scientific, rigid and effective land management a supporting pillar for stabilizing growth, restructuring the economy and improving lives.