School improvement The Chinese Government spent about 615.6 billion yuan (US$86 billion) improving school infrastructure and facilities in less developed regions in the five years starting from 2014, with 169.9 billion yuan allocated from the central budget, China Education Daily reported on Monay. Since 2014, 224 million square meters of school buildings, 222 million square meters of outdoor playgrounds, over 29 million square meters of student dormitories, 13.16 million square meters of student cafeterias and 6.77 million square meters of toilets have been built, renovated or expanded, figures from the report show. Economic growth China will still toughen measures to ensure economic growth facing the impact of COVID-19 outbreak, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Due to the uncertainties the epidemic brought to global economy and trade, China decided not to set a specific annual economic growth target for 2020, but still, full-out efforts shall be made to ensure the six priorities and the stability in six areas, said Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the NDRC at a press conference in Beijing on Sunday. Domestic demand should be further expanded with structural reforms, consumption and investment while boosting urbanization with the goal of bringing 100 million rural residents to resettle in cities and towns, he said. QR code China’s digital economy has gained growth momentum from QR code technology amid the COVID-19 epidemic, an industry report showed. The volume of business transactions using QR codes soared by 25.86 percent year on year in the first quarter this year, according to the report jointly released by Wechat, Tencent Research Institute and Tsinghua China Data Center. GD preschools Guangdong Province will reopen kindergartens and special education schools starting June 2 as the COVID-19 epidemic in the country has been subdued. Local kindergartens and special education schools, however, should first pass on-site checks and receive government approvals for reopening, according to Wang Chuang, deputy director of the provincial education department. The department ordered kindergartens to stagger school start times for epidemic prevention and control. (SD-Agencies) | 