Qingzhen spends 14.8b yuan on improving people's livelihoods

The rural highway network in Qingzhen city is completed. [Photo/gywb.cn]

During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, the government in Qingzhen, a county-level city in Southwest China's Guizhou province, spent 14.8 billion yuan ($2.22 billion) on people's livelihoods, accounting for 75 percent of the general public budget expenditure, according to local media reports.

Qingzhen's government has doubled its efforts in the areas of housing, poverty alleviation, healthcare, water supply, road work, education and elderly care to ensure basic-level infrastructure and people's wellbeing. 

Data shows that the housing problems faced by 1,344 households have been resolved. A total of 1,966 impoverished residents have moved out of villages and into urban areas, and 9,998 poverty-stricken people and 17 villages have been removed from the poverty list.

A bird's eye view of Qingzhen First People's Hospital [Photo/gywb.cn]

The water supply coverage rate has exceeded 90 percent, and the city is the first in the province to achieve water supply integration. The government has also accomplished 800 kilometers of road reconstruction and basically completed its rural highway network.

A total of 90,000 people from urban or rural areas have found employment, with the unemployment rate being maintained at less than 5 percent. New medical facilities such as the Qingzhen First People's Hospital, Qingzhen Maternal and Child Care Center and Qingzhen City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine have been created.

The city has invested 2.3 billion yuan in basic and higher education, promoting various education programs and adding 34,940 new college degrees. The number of kindergartens has been increased by 240 percent compared with that in 2015.

Also, six public elderly care institutions have upgraded their facilities and bettered their services for senior citizens.