The life expectancy for urban residents of Beijing has risen to 79.6 years, compared 52.8 years in the early years of People's Republic of China.

Lu Yinchuan, an official with Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, attributed the progress to improvement of public services, especially health care.

Mortality of pregnant women and infants in the national capital has fallen to 15.6 per 100,000 and 5.89 per thousand, respectively. Also Beijing has 5.9 hospital beds for every 1,000 people. Both statistics meet the standards of developed countries.

A social security network with social insurance and aid as the core features has taken shape in the national capital. The number of people entitled to pension, medical care and unemployment insurance are 4.49 million, 4.36 million and 3.07 million, respectively.

Apart from introducing pension insurance for the elderly and cooperative medical system in the city's rural areas, Beijing has also built a social support system with minimum life security. Up to now, 225,000 Beijingers have benefited from the new system.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2004)