The municipal government of Zibo in East China's Shandong province released an action plan to speed up the construction of a child-friendly city by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) on June 14.
The Child Friendly Cities Initiative, or CFCI, was launched in 1996 by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to children, and has established a goal to build child-friendly cities as a national action plan.
By the end of 2021, there were 859,000 minors under the age of 18 in Zibo, accounting for 18.3 percent of the total population.
According to the action plan, Zibo is expected to become a model child-friendly city by 2035.
The city will implement 42 key tasks to improve child-friendly policies, raise the quality of child-friendly services, strengthen the protection of child-friendly rights, expand child-friendly growth spaces and optimize the development of child-friendly environments.
With a total investment of 4.86 billion yuan ($729 million), 10 education projects have been included in the list of Zibo's major projects in 2022, and are currently under construction.
