Five-year plan on food and drug safety

The State Council issued two five-year plans (2016-2020) on food and drug safety on Feb 21.

The food safety plan outlines that by 2020, sample tests should cover all kinds of food and 97 percent of agricultural products should meet quality standards.

The plan on drug safety stresses promoting the quality and consistency of evaluation for generic drugs, deepening the reform of approval procedures for medical equipment, setting up an improved regulation system for drug standards and strengthening the supervision of drug production.

It also requires by 2020 the revision of 3,050 national drug standards and 500 medical equipment standards and that the license holding rate for pharmaceutical practitioners will be over 0.04 percent.

Compulsory education enrollment for 2017

The Ministry of Education issued a document to promote the implementation of compulsory education enrollment for 2017.

In 19 major cities, all primary schools and 95 percent of junior schools should enroll students from designated areas, and the number of specialty students should be limited to five percent of total enrollment in county schools, according to the document.

Also, schools are not allowed to provide selected students with special training by organizing training courses or cooperating with private teaching institutes. And parents or guardians should not give children home schooling as a substitute for compulsory school education without the permission of the authorities.

Budget management of basic medical insurance funds

China will make efforts to enhance the budget management of basic medical insurance funds, according to a document issued by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security and the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The authorities called for local governments to implement a payment system based on the general budget, which is made up of payments for all kinds of medical treatment.

Hospitals should charge patients according to the types of diseases, patient groups and hospital bed costs, while reducing fees for treatment items.

Social investment into construction of high-standard farmland

NDRC and seven other ministries jointly issued guidelines to further boost the development of high-standard farmland.

The move is aimed at promoting a new business model and attracting capital investments while emphasizing innovative financing and investment models, to support local government and social capital to more efficiently build high-standard farmlands.

It said that by 2020, China will construct at least 800 million mu (53.3 million hectares) of high standard farmland and strive to achieve the goal of 1 billion mu (66.6 million hectares).

Overhaul of tourism market

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), along with the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC), planned to carry out an overhaul to crack down on illegal activities and enterprises in seven scenic spots, including Lijiang and Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, and Wuyuan, Jiangxi province.

The move is aimed at promoting civilized behavior among tourists and penalizing the illegal operation of some tourism-related business, with a blacklist of dishonest enterprises that will be released to the public.

Random inspection on food products

The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) has made a random inspection of 10 categories of food and drink products, with 834 being sampled, 825 qualified and nine failing the tests.