Shenzhen would pursue becoming a city of happiness with more money to be spent on improving public services, Mayor Xu Qin told a press conference yesterday.
The city would focus on improving the quality of life with a better environment, higher incomes and reduced living pressures, Xu said at the close of the annual session of the city legislature yesterday.
The city budgeted 17.5 billion yuan (US$2.65 billion) for public service expenditure for 2011, about 20 percent more than last year, according to the budget report for 2011.
The money would be spent mainly on improving the lives of the people, including education, health care, social security, employment, public utilities and public transport, the report said.
About 9 billion yuan would be spent on education, 2.37 billion yuan more than last year. The money would be used to build and upgrade primary and middle schools, providing about 13,000 new seats for primary schools and 6,500 for middle schools this year.
Another 4 billion yuan would be spent on health care, 14.6 percent more than last year. Seven public hospitals are now under construction.
The city would also spend about 2.33 billion yuan on social security and creating jobs, an increase of 36.3 percent over last year. Health care and unemployment insurance schemes would be expanded to cover more people.
About 300 million yuan would be spent on helping the unemployed find jobs, 100 million yuan more than last year.
Another 1.8 billion yuan would be spent on subsidizing public utilities such as gas, water and public buses.
Wang Yuanyuan
