People’s health is indeed wealth for nation

The central leadership has taken several measures to promote sports and the sports industry to exhort more people to play sports or exercise regularly to lead a healthy lifestyle, because people’s health is vital to the economic and social development. Two experts share their views on the issue with China Daily. Excerpts follow:

The country celebrated the ninth National Fitness Day on Aug 8, which was themed “Keep Fit and Exercise Everyday to Welcome the Opening of the 19th CPC National Congress” and promoted several events, such as public demonstrations of physical fitness, in order to build the right atmosphere to welcome the Beijing - Zhangjiakou 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made “national fitness” a part of the national strategy, while emphasizing that the improvement in people’s overall physical health is important for the development of the country.

The State Council, China’s Cabinet, issued a document in 2014 aimed at developing the sports industry with the aim of improving people’s physical health. The “Recommendation for the 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development”, published during the Third Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee, for the first time highlighted the

“National Fitness Strategy” to foster the robust development of the sports industry.

First, the National Fitness Strategy can greatly help the development of the sports industry if it promotes sports as a lifestyle. Studies show that when a country’s per capita GDP reaches $2,500, people realize the importance of physical fitness, and when it reaches $5,000, the demand for sports and fitness equipment rises remarkably. And when the per capita GDP reaches $8,000, physical fitness tends to become a pillar industry of the economy. There is therefore reason to believe the sports industry can be turned into a pillar industry in China.

Second, the National Fitness Strategy can help formulate new business models to boost the sports industry. Still, while entrepreneurs are prioritizing their strength in targeted niches, consumer demand keeps increasing, not least because China’s per capita coverage rate of gymnasiums remains low.

Third, the strategy could help bring related industries closer. The National Fitness Program (2016-20), issued by State Council, says sports consumption will exceed 1.5 trillion yuan ($230 billion) by 2020, and national fitness will become a driving force of the sports industry, fueling domestic demand.

To consolidate its position as a leading sports power, China will steadfastly implement the National Fitness Strategy and keep exploring new methodologies and patterns to facilitate the growth of the sports industry. As people’s living conditions have improved, they have become more aware of the importance of physical health. This calls for intensifying the development of the sports industry, as an important part of supply-side reform.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core released the Healthy China Outline (2030) during the Fifth Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which offered clear directions for a national physical

fitness strategy and development of the sports industry.

With China’s economic growth entering the “new normal”, people now need a lot more than just the necessities of life; they are also pursuing a better and healthier life. Besides, sports activities are a healthy source of recreation.

Developing sports culture is the best way to help improve people’s overall health. By leading a healthy lifestyle, people can contribute more to national development and ease the pressure on public hospitals.

China has about 300 million primary and secondary school students, who are the future of our country. By promoting sports activities among these students, we will lay a solid foundation for a healthy China.

The development of sports and physical culture is vital to upgrading the sports industry. According to the Healthy China Outline (2030), 435 million people in China are expected to exercise frequently by 2020 — the figure is expected to rise to 530 million by 2030. And since the National Fitness Strategy is expected to play a greater role, all kinds of preferential policies are likely to be rolled out for the development of sports industry. The sports industry, therefore, has no excuse for not providing better products and services for consumers.

To put it plainly, without the National Fitness Strategy, it is difficult to build a moderately well-off society in an allround way.

The National Financial Work Conference stressed that financial regulation should be tightened by strengthening relevant laws and regulations, improving the corporate legal person management structure of financial organizations and reinforcing the construction of macro-prudential management system.

Since the first National Financial Work Conference in 1997, the central government has continuously taken measures to improve the financial regulatory system. Last month’s conference decided to establish the “Financial Stability and Development Committee” under the State Council, China’s Cabinet, with the aim of improving the top-level design of preventing financial risks in an all-round way.

The conference also decided to enhance the central bank’s responsibility for macro-prudential management and systemic risk prevention. Besides, the local governments have been asked to shoulder the responsibility of risk disposal. And to prevent financial risks, the authorities should establish a sound financial system. To start with, they should implement measures to ensure the financial organization system works to the optimum level, and improve the State-owned financial capital management and foreign exchange market mechanism.

They should also take steps to improve the modern financial enterprise system and external market discipline while plugging the loopholes in financial regulation. In this regard, the Financial Stability and Development Committee will help raise the level and coverage of financial regulation. However, the success of those measures will depend not only on top-level design and institutional improvement, but also on whether or not the regulators fulfill their duties.

The National Financial Work Conference has asked financial regulators to more strictly implement regulations and the local authorities to control local government debt.

To prevent financial risks, it is necessary to establish a financial-risk monitoring system, and a warning and early intervention mechanism. Therefore, the regulators should also strengthen integrated regulation, connectivity and information sharing, in order to prevent and/or dissipate risks, especially in key sectors.

Financial risks increase with the rapid development of new business models and financial products. So, to continue deleveraging and prevent such risks, the authorities should deepen financial reform and stick to steady monetary policy.

Finance being the lifeblood of the economy, preventing systemic financial risks is one of the most important economic tasks. As such, the conference made comprehensively preventing financial risks a very important task, in order to ensure the financial sector better serves the real economy and promotes the healthy development of the national economy.

The author is a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.