Beijing issues blueprint to boost life expectancy

Beijing released the "Healthy Beijing 2030" blueprint recently, aiming to increaseing Beijing residents' average life expectancy to 83.4 years old in 14 years, up from 82 years old last year.

The blueprint on health development of next 14 years includes 10 chapters spanning guidance on health literacy, psychological health improvement, healthy living environment management and health care industry development to secure better living standard and medical care for the citizens.

The "Healthy Beijing 2030" plan has 15 additional criteria on the basis of 13 health indexes included in "Healthy China 2030", covering the annual concentration of PM 2.5, population of taking public transportation, and qualification rate of drug samples.

The health blueprint is set to control mortality of infants and children under 5 years old within 3‰ and 4‰ while the maternal deaths is eight out of one hundred thousand.

The plan also aims to improve citizens' health literacy to 45% percent by 2030 by promoting health knowledge, healthy lifestyle and behaviors.

Lei Haichao, director of Beijing municipal commission of health and family planning, said that, "The health literacy is an important measurement. The health literacy of citizens in Beijing has reached 28 degree in 2015, ranking first in China but it still remains low compared with other cities of the world."

"It should be emphasized that health is the personal treasure and responsibility. While environment and health care conditions take effect on personal health, genetic factors and personal behavior are principal to good health condition, it is important to raise citizens' awareness on health care," said Lei.

Health care services and environment will be enhanced according to the health plan. Health care industry is expected to increase to 1.6 trillion yuan in 2030 to create a batch of health care suppliers with strong creativity and competitiveness.

Cheng Si contributed to this story.