Han Ximin

THE city government will set aside 6.12 billion yuan (US$862 million) to be spent on education, medicare, social security and employment in its budget this year to improve the living standards of residents.

This amount represents an increase of 35 percent over the 2007 budget, sources from the city's finance bureau said Monday.

The budget will be handed to lawmakers for approval at the five-day annual session of the Fourth Municipal People's Congress to be held from Thursday to Tuesday.

Expenditure on education will rise 35.1 percent to 3.77 billion yuan, mainly to be spent on implementing the free education policy for the nine-year compulsory education period, improving school facilities and houses in Longgang and Bao'an districts and promoting development of higher learning institutions, vocational education and private schools.

In medicare, the city's budget will allocate 1.12 billion yuan, an increase of 36.4 percent over 2007, to publicize community clinics and reduce health-care costs by offering subsidies to hospitals.

The city will also expand medical insurance for children and disabled persons, and extend time periods of subsidies to college students and low-income families by injecting 1.23 billion yuan.

The fiscal revenue of the municipal government, excluding the revenue of district governments, reached 65.8 billion yuan in 2007, up 31.4 percent over the previous year.

Taking transfers from the previous year into consideration, the total revenue of the municipal government for 2007 reached 68.7 billion yuan. It was the first time the city's revenue had exceeded 60 billion yuan.

To ensure market supply and stabilize commodity prices, the city government will, for the first time, earmark 500 million yuan this year to increase reserves of daily necessities including cereal, edible oil and meat.