Zhu made the remarks during an inspection tour of northeastern Liaoning Province. He said the province had made important progress on its trial network of social security over the past year.

On July 22-24, accompanied by Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo, Zhu visited residential communities and a community vocational training center, a medicare station and kindergarten in the cities of Shenyang and Fushun.

Zhu noted that the system, which included programs for endowment insurance, unemployment insurance and minimum living expenses, had proved successful in helping reforms in state-owned enterprises and retaining social stability.

The success in this traditional industry base was significant for the system's application in other areas, Zhu said.

However, to complete such a system across the world's most populous nation was no easy job, Zhu said.

He asked state-owned enterprises to pay premiums for the retired and allocate minimum living expenses to those made redundant.

Government funds for minimum living expenses should be guaranteed, he said, adding that construction projects could be cut to save government expenditure.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2002)