The General Offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council recently issued the Opinions on Further Ensuring and Improving People’s Livelihoods and Resolving Urgent Public Concerns (the “Opinions”). At a June 10 press conference, Xiao Weiming, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), outlined the document’s four key areas and 10 policy measures, emphasizing that the NDRC will work with relevant departments to implement these initiatives and deliver tangible benefits to the public.
“Precision, Practicality, and Innovation” Define Policy Highlights
The Opinions focus on four strategic directions:
Strengthening the people’s wellbeing Safety Net: Prioritizing fairness, the policy aims to expand social security coverage and enhance support for low-income groups.
Equalizing Basic Public Services: Ensuring balanced access to public services regardless of urban-rural divides or demographic differences, including service provision based on place of residence.
Addressing Key Livelihood Challenges: Expanding inclusive services in education, healthcare, elderly care, and childcare, such as optimizing educational resources and promoting shared high-quality medical services.
Enhancing Accessible Social Services: Developing community-based services, improving diverse life services, and fostering inclusive development.
Xiao described the policy’s innovations as “precise, practical, and new”:
Precision: Targeted solutions for livelihood challenges.
Practicality: Concrete measures to resolve prominent public grievances.
Innovation: “Small-cut” initiatives to drive large-scale people’s wellbeing improvements.
Retirement Pensions to Rise as Fiscal Support Expands
Ge Zhihao, Director of the Ministry of Finance’s Social Security Department, announced increased fiscal investment in 2025.
Education and social security/employment expenditures each near 4.5 trillion yuan (up 6.1% and 5.9% respectively).
Key areas include:supporting employment-first policies.
Raising basic pension standards: the monthly minimum national basic pension for urban and rural residents will increase by 20 yuan, with retirees’ pensions also rising. Over 300 million elderly people will benefit from enhanced central fiscal subsidies and national pension coordination.
Enhancing medical security: Improving basic medical insurance benefits.
Optimizing educational resources: Expanding and upgrading educational facilities.
Safeguarding vulnerable groups: 156.68 billion yuan allocated for disaster relief and targeted assistance to exceptional poverty and low-income populations, with innovative relief methods promoted for precision support.
Focus on “One Old, One Young” Services
The Finance Ministry is also advancing:community-based elderly care services and care for disabled seniors.
High-quality inclusive childcare services, including a new parenting subsidy system.
These efforts aim to meet growing demands for elderly and child services, ensuring policy benefits reach grassroots levels efficiently.
The new policy package reflects a systematic approach to addressing people’s most pressing needs, combining fiscal support with structural reforms to enhance social welfare and shared development.
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