China's State Council has deliberated and adopted work plans on promoting the high-quality development of the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries in the 2023-2025 period, a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang noted on Friday.

At the meeting, it was emphasized that efforts should be made to enhance the supply capacity of more sophisticated, high-quality medicines, key technologies and pharmaceutical materials, as well as accelerating the pace of shoring up China's weak links in high-end medical equipment.

Measures should be taken to offer full-chain support to pharmaceutical research and development, while encouraging and guiding leading medical enterprises to develop and expand, in a bid to enhance the sector's industrial concentration and market competitiveness, it was determined.

The importance of protecting the security of traditional Chinese medicine's development was also highlighted.

Supportive policies should be fine-tuned to promote the upgrading of domestic medical equipment, and support should be given to universities and enterprises in jointly cultivating a group of leading talents in the sector, it was noted. 

Guidelines on the planning and construction of affordable housing were also deliberated and adopted.

Efforts to do a good job in the planning and design of affordable housing, while ensuring the quality of construction and attaching more importance to supporting facilities and public services, were urged.

(Cover: Workers make medical equipment at a sterile workshop of a medical technology company in Binzhou City, east China's Shandong Province, July 31, 2023. /CFP)