The top leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday adopted a plan aiming to build a healthy China in the next 15 years.
The blueprint, called "Healthy China 2030," was passed at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
Participants at the meeting said health is the basic condition for economic and social development and a key indicator of the nation's prosperity.
The "Healthy China 2030" plan is an important effort to implement the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and to improve people's health, attendees said.
In the meantime, it is also important in China's efforts to engage in global health governance and implement the country's commitment to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Attendees noted that although Chinese people's health has historically kept improving, China still faces various challenges brought by industrialization, urbanization, an aging population, and changes in lifestyles.
The participants said the plan should focus on the country's new development concepts: innovation, environmental concern, coordination, and open and shared growth.
The primary goal of the plan is to enhance people's health, and it can be achieved with the help of institutional reform and innovation, the participants said.
They added that future efforts should focus on promoting healthy lifestyles, optimizing health services, improving health security, building a healthy environment and developing health industries.
The government should play a leading role and the public should be mobilized to participate, attendees said, stressing that paying attention to the health of key groups such as women, children, seniors, migrants and low-income groups, was of particular concern.
Building a healthy China requires more government input and greater efforts to deepen institutional reforms, increased personnel development, the promotion of scientific and technological innovation, stronger legislation and the expansion of international cooperation.
Party committees and governments of various levels should speed up the formulation of supporting policies, participants said.
