Beijing reports improvement in public services during 2021-2025

Beijing has continued to see improvements in public services and people's well-being, with the city's average life expectancy reaching 83.93 years, officials said at a briefing Monday on the social and livelihood achievements made during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

According to Wang Qingwang, director of the municipal human resources and social security bureau, the city maintained stable employment despite a complex external environment, adding an average of 278,000 new urban jobs each year and keeping the urban surveyed unemployment rate at 4.3%. 

Pro-employment policies helped 769,000 people facing difficulties secure jobs, while 674,000 rural workers are added to the employment insurance network, ensuring that approximately all the rural labor is included in the urban employee insurance system.

Participation in pension, unemployment and work-injury insurance continued to expand, with the social security fund balance reaching 1.1 trillion yuan ($154.5 billion). Minimum wage standards rose from 2,200 yuan to 2,540 yuan over five years.

Wang Jianhui, deputy director and spokesperson of the municipal health commission, said that the city has expanded the supply of pediatric and mental-health services, with all secondary and higher-level general hospitals now offering pediatric outpatient services and all community health centers accessible to child patients. 

Emergency response time has been reduced to under 12 minutes, and medical alliances and referral systems have expanded significantly. Beijing now hosts 23 national clinical medical research centers — nearly half of the country's total — and leads the nation with 377 national key clinical specialties.

Basic medical insurance coverage remains above 95%. According to Yan Bing, deputy director of the municipal healthcare security administration, the city has built a multi-tiered medical security system, and improved one-stop settlement services for basic medical insurance, serious illness insurance, and medical assistance.

Drug and medical-consumable prices have dropped sharply through 44 rounds of centralized procurement, and 238 hospitals now offer mobile medical insurance payment services.

Beijing's senior population has surpassed 5 million. Yang Zhiwei, deputy director of the municipal civil affairs bureau, said the city has accelerated eldercare services by expanding the network of caretaking institutions and community-based services, including 622 registered eldercare institutions, more than 1,500 community eldercare stations, and nearly 1,000 rural mutual-aid points. 

The city also added more than 33,000 home-based eldercare beds, and provided training programs to support families caring for older seniors. Meal-assistance sites now cover 90% of urban and rural communities, and subsidies for low-income, disabled, and very elderly residents benefit more than 1.27 million people.

According to the municipal finance bureau, more than 80% of Beijing's general public budget expenditure has consistently gone toward improving people's livelihoods over the past five years. This included 606.1 billion yuan for education, 570.2 billion yuan for social security and employment, 342.7 billion yuan for healthcare, and 92.7 billion yuan for housing.