FACE TO FACE WITH HIRERS: Job hunters visit booths at a career fair organized by the Xiamen Municipal Government (YAO FAN)

To date, 120,000 children of migrant workers are receiving public education, accounting for 80 percent of the total number and we aim to up that to over 90 percent by the end of 2015.

To achieve this goal, in 2011, we earmarked 1.2 billion yuan ($192.5 million) from our budget to subsidize education costs in public schools and 16.4 million yuan ($2.63 million) for private schools. No matter in public or private schools, children of migrant workers can all receive free compulsory education.

Also, marked progress has been made in the establishment of urban and rural healthcare systems in Xiamen. For instance, a 69-year-old farmer from a village in Xiang'an District, spent 204,000 yuan ($32,721.6) in the hospital after he suffered a stroke. Later on, his medical insurance reimbursed 160,000 yuan ($25,664), or 77.6 percent of the total. This is mainly attributed to Xiamen's public medical insurance system that has covered all rural and urban residents with the same standards since 2009.

In the future, we will further improve the healthcare system in Xiamen in the following ways: facilitating the construction of more public hospitals, formulating more incentives to attract high-end talent in the industry, regulating the prices of medicines and carrying forward reforms in public hospitals.

Housing prices, food safety and traffic conditions are also on the minds of the people. What has Xiamen done to improve these areas?

The housing problem is a topical issue nationwide, with skyrocketing prices being a major concern. Xiamen is one of the first cities to have constructed low-income housing projects. To date, the city has invested over 6 billion yuan ($962.4 million) in affordable housing, and so far, 53,200 units have been built. Affordable housing projects in Xiamen are of good quality, well located and have strong supporting facilities. Also, we strictly supervise the allocation of low-income housing to ensure the whole process is transparent, fair and just.

In light of scandals such as the tainted milk episode and the use of gutter oil (illegally collected waste cooking oil), food safety has become a major concern for Chinese people and we have done a lot of work to enhance food safety. First, we developed a safety monitoring system, which includes over 60,000 kinds of foods from over 10,000 companies. Second, we hold morality lessons for employees in the food industry. Third, Xiamen has established a database of food companies that misbehave. Finally, the city encourages the use of third-party food testing agencies.

The state of traffic has a great impact on the daily lives of our residents, and Xiamen is improving traffic flow in several ways.

We have over 850,000 vehicles in the city, a rate among the highest in China. To mitigate traffic congestion, Xiamen has accelerated the construction of road projects by opening 12 new roads and nine underground tunnels. Also, the city is expanding its public transportation in an effort to relieve traffic congestion. The longest bus route is over 50 km, and the ticket is only 2 yuan ($0.32). In Xiamen, over 85 percent of bus fares are 1 yuan ($0.16), which greatly encourages residents to take public transportation.

To deal with the lack of parking lots, the city is pushing forward the construction of 30 parking facilities and is mulling over ways to encourage more private capital investment in the process.

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