China’s Overall Global Competitiveness Improved
　　China ranked 28th in the global competitiveness rankings， unchanged from last year， but with a steady improvement in overall scores， according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2019 recently released by the World Economic Forum.
　　The top 10 are Singapore， the U.S.， China’s Hong Kong， the Netherlands， Switzerland， Japan， Germany， Sweden， the U.K. and Denmark. Regionally， the Asia-Pacific region is the most competitive region in the world， followed by Europe and North America.
　　Based on the global competitiveness index， the report assessed the competitiveness of 141 economies from 12 pillar indicators. These pillar indicators include institutions， infrastructure， information and communication technology adoption， macroeconomic stability， healthcare， skills， commodity markets， labor markets， financial systems， market size， enterprise vitality， and innovation capacity.
　　According to the report， China scored highly in market size， macroeconomic stability， innovation capacity， information technology application， and infrastructure.
　　In addition to this， China’s performance in some areas is comparable to that of members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development（OECD）， a group of mainly developed economies. For example， China’s performance in information technology applications exceeds that of 25 OECD members， and China’s average life expectancy is higher than that of the U.S.， very close to the OECD average.
　　Establishing a Modern Financial System
　　Finance is the economic foundation of government activities and the key pillar of national governances. As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era and the Chinese economy enters a stage of high-quality development， China’s public finance needs to be brought to a higher level and adopt a broader vision.
　　Having a modern fiscal system which is connected both to the socialist market economy and modern state governance is the goal of China’s fiscal and taxation reform in the new era. On the basis of a public fiscal system， China hopes to establish a modern financial system， with the aim of making it a fundamental support to national governance， thus promoting the modernization of the national governance system. This is both the mission China’s finance should bear in the new era and is also a characteristic of socialism with Chinese characteristics. 　　An Action Plan for High-quality Development of the Health Industry
　　The National Development and Reform Commission （NDRC） and other relevant departments recently issued an action plan to promote high-quality development of the health industry from 2019 to 2022. The plan points out that by 2022， a health industry will come into being which has more quality medical and health resources， broader coverage， a sound structure， and a greater number of more competitive professionals.
　　At present， there are still many weaknesses in China’s health industry， such as insufficient high-quality medical resources， low scientific and technological application， insufficient cross-industry integration， slow health insurance development， shortage of professionals， as well as an imperfect business environment and industry supervision.
　　Therefore， in the future， regional medical centers will be built to support the expansion of high-quality hospitals， develop highquality health management， establish a national health information platform， and develop Internet-based medical services and drug distribution.


　　China Ranks First in Outbound Tourism Expenditure
　　With the sustained and steady development of China’s economy and the steady rise in its people’s income， the consumption structure of urban and rural residents has undergone profound changes， with consumption shifting from physical commodities to services such as tourism， culture， education， healthcare， and care for the elderly. Among them， the number of outbound tourists and volume of outbound tourism expenditure rank first in the world.
　　From 1995 to 2017， the number of outbound Chinese tourists increased from five million to 143 million， an average annual growth of 17 percent. China ranked 17th in the world in the number of outbound tourists in 1995， and ranked first in the world from 2013 to 2017. China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market.
　　China’s outbound tourism expenditure also ranks first in the world. In 1995， China ranked 25th in outbound tourism expenditure， ranked second in 2013， and ranked first in the world from 2014 to 2016. In 2017， China’s outbound tourism expenditure was US $257.7 billion， the largest in the world and 24 times higher than its figure in 1995.