The Chinese government pledged on Thursday to increase spending on social programs including pension and medical reform in 2009 despite pressure from the international financial crisis.

"The more difficulties we face, the greater attention we should pay to ensuring people's well-being and promoting social harmony and stability," Premier Wen Jiabao said in a government work report to the annual session of the parliament that opened here Thursday.

The central government plans to spend 293 billion yuan (about 42.84 billion U.S. dollars) on the social safety net this year, up 17.6 percent or 43.9 billion yuan over the estimated figure for last year, he said.

"Local governments will also increase funding in this area," he said.

The fund will help "expand coverage of social security programs" and "increase social security benefits" of the Chinese, according to the Premier.

The government will allocate an additional 850 billion yuan in the three years beginning on 2009, including 331.8 billion yuan from the central government, to ensure smooth progress in the reform of its medical and health care system.

To promote fairness in education, the government will increase public expenditures on rural compulsory education, and to basically clear the debts incurred in providing nine-year compulsory education in rural areas within three years, Wen said.

The central government will spend 12 billion yuan and local governments will also increase funding to raise salaries of the 12 million primary and secondary school teachers based on a performance-based salary system, according to Wen.

The government will implement a program to ensure "school buildings are the safest and provide the greatest assurance to parents," Wen said.

"We will continue to ensure that maintaining and improving people's life is always the starting and end point of our economic work," he said.

Economists said the lack of health insurance and social security is holding back China's economic development and the government's efforts to spur domestic demand, as people tend to clutch their purses tightly for unexpected disease, a laid-off, or old-age.