Wuxi's public budget expenditure rises 7.5%

Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province will spend 130.5 billion yuan ($20.2 billion) on general public budget expenditure in 2021, up 7.5 percent year-on-year, according to a government release made during the fifth session of the 16th Wuxi Municipal People's Congress on Jan 19.

The fiscal expenditure will mainly focus on sectors like education, public health, employment, and social welfare, according to officials.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) period, over 80 percent of the city's public budget expenditure has been used to improve people's livelihoods.

The government said that a total of 1.88 billion yuan will be spent promoting the balanced development of basic education, building the city into a hub for vocational education, as well as improving the quality of higher education.

A special fund of 206 million yuan will promote employment and entrepreneurship, increase vocational skills, as well as promote employment security for the disabled.

With a total budget of 1.25 billion yuan, the city will continue to make efforts to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as improve the public healthcare system.

Wuxi had allocated 33.4 billion yuan to support the city's modern industry development over the past five years, reducing the burden on the real economy by more than 120 billion yuan.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, the city will allocate 35 billion yuan in industrial investment to build a modern industrial system and to develop into a competitive industrial science and innovation center.

In 2021, Wuxi will work to promote the construction of Taihu Bay technological innovation belt, upgrade the Taihu Talent Plan, and build industrial clusters on 10 key industries, according to officials.