POLITICAL advisers offered suggestions on the city’s strategies to improve people’s livelihood during speeches at the opening of the 4th session of the Sixth Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPPCC on Tuesday.

Higher education

The core value of Shenzhen’s higher education is to cultivate first-class innovation talents for the sustainable development of Shenzhen and the country.

This should be the core of Shenzhen’s development strategy. A city isn’t complete without a leading university. The city should increase investment and support in higher learning institutes. A university can grow with a city. Shenzhen’s higher learning institutes could find a new mode by converging higher education with scientific innovation. Shenzhen should cooperate with Hong Kong in the higher learning sector to establish an educational resources-sharing mechanism and innovate its institutions by referring to the experiences of Hong Kong and mainland universities.

— Chen Shiyi, president of SUSTech

Nursing for elderly

Shenzhen is facing a shortage of 12,000 beds for nursing the elderly. It is hard to get a bed at a public-funded nursing home for the elderly, while the development of privately funded nursing homes has been slow because of complicated approval procedures and a shortage of professionals trained in nursing elderly people.

Shenzhen should lower its thresholds, simplify approvals and encourage private investment in the industry by offering subsidies, improving the pricing system, and expanding financing channels for services for the elderly. The city should establish vocational schools in elderly nursing and include these skilled trainees into the city’s category for specially needed professions.

— Fang Tao, executive vice chairwoman of Shenzhen Charity Federation

Road designs

Shenzhen should plan and build more south-north roads to divert vehicles due to regular congestion on the existing roads despite Nanguang Expressway and Longda Expressway becoming toll free.

At present there is only one trunk road to Pingshan and Dapeng. The road is often congested during holidays with people traveling to the east of the city. The insufficiency of south-north roads also bottlenecks the development and reduces the efficiency of enterprises.

— Chen Zhilie, chairman of Evoc Group