The Chinese government has vowed again to increase its spending on education to four percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, a target previously set in 1993.
The pledge was included in the China’s National Outline for Medium and Long Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-20), which was released recently by the Chinese State Council.
“Though it takes time to realize the target of four percent, China has performed better than the international average in regards to its education expenditure’s proportion of fiscal expenditure from 2004 to 2008,” Ding Xuedong, vice-minister of finance, told a press conference in Beijing.
As a matter of comparison, while China — ranked in the 89th in position according to the International Human Development Indicators HDI) of the United Nations — plans to increase its Expenditure in Education (total public expenditure, both current and capital, on education expressed as a percentage of GDP) numbers to 4.0%, Brazil (HDI 73rd), Russia (HDI 65th) and India (HDI 119th) spend 5.2%, 3.9% and 3.2% respectively .
