(Yicai Global) March 4 -- The 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference finished the opening meeting of the second session and kicked off ministerial press conferences yesterday afternoon.

Civil Aviation Administration to Promote Digital Travel

Just over 80 percent of flights in China were on time last year, a 10-year high, according to Feng Zhenglin, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, who promised that the CAAC will try to keep the rate above 80 percent this year.

The sector will promote paperless boarding, which was 37 percent last year, to above 70 percent this year. It will also promote self-service at airports, allowing passengers to use smartphones to check in, drop off baggage and board, shortening waiting times. The sector will explore a new security system, further deploy differentiated security inspection, and save security check time for passengers.

Airlines will provide through-check luggage transfer. From this year, passengers no longer need to check in their luggage mid-way and can monitor their luggage during the whole transfer process.

The sector will further deploy WiFi, keep the airport catering service on the same level as the local standard for price and quality, and provide electronic waybill for air shipment, Feng said.

National Medical Security Administration to Add More Cancer Drugs to Health Insurance

The National Medical Security Administration has included 17 types of cancer treatments in medical insurance over the last year, with an average price cut of almost 57 percent, Hu Jinglin, the head of the newly formed body, said in reply to a question on how to help patients use insurance-listed cancer drugs as soon as possible.

The number of people applying for reimbursement as of the end of last year, just over a month after the treatments were listed, reached 45,000, and the reimbursement was CNY260 million (USD38.8 million). Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangdong had 12,000 applicants with repayments of CNY100 million in January. The applicant number was 2.4 times the previous month, and the amount was more than two-fold, said Hu.

This year's task is to include more life-saving medicines in health insurance. The administration will first reform the medical insurance catalog management method and establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism. It will start adjustment for this year's catalog and complete the task in September.

The administration will fully consider the capacity of the medical insurance fund and clinical needs when adjusting the catalog, Hu said. The adjustment will focus on medications for cancer, rare ailments, chronic and childhood diseases according to the basic requirement of the medical insurance. It will also exclude any unqualified medicine, Hu added.

Environment Ministry to Focus on Pollution Control in Seven Areas

The State Council, China's cabinet, set up the Ministry of Ecology and Environment as part of institutional reforms last year, resolving the overlapping of functions, power dispersal and other long-standing issues.

The ministry will focus on pollution control in seven areas, namely blue sky protection, diesel truck pollution control, urban sewage treatment, comprehensive treatment of the Bohai Sea, Yangtze River protection and restoration, water source protection, and handling of agricultural and rural pollution.

The aim is to further improve the ecological environment, and jointly advance economic growth and environmental and ecological protection this year, said Minister Li Ganjie.