The Jinan government has been spending an increasing amount of money improving people's livelihoods over the past five years, according to an announcement at a news conference on Dec 9.

Expenditures on key social projects related to education, employment, social security, healthcare, housing, agriculture, and transportation increased from 55.88 billion yuan ($8.54 billion) in 2015 to 93.33 billion yuan in 2019. They are expected to reach 96 billion yuan in 2020.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (2016-20), the Jinan government spent 37.49 billion yuan in health services, including 1.76 billion yuan on efforts to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year.

In addition, 3.71 billion yuan was spent on social security subsidies for flexible employment and one-time employment subsidies for small, medium-sized, and micro businesses.

A total of 9.445 billion yuan was used for poverty alleviation, and 1,006 poverty-stricken villages in the city were lifted out of poverty. A total of 26.99 billion yuan was spent on environmental protection efforts.

The government has also made efforts to support public cultural services by spending 10.5 billion yuan to provide free public access to cultural facilities, and 24 Quancheng public reading rooms were established during this period.