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Creating more jobs is the fundamental way to relieve the army of
urban poor, who are numbered more than 30 million or make up eight
percent of the total urban population, said a member of China's top
advisory body.
"Assistance and relief" cannot lift the urban poor from poverty,
said Ye Weizhen, who is attending the first session of the 10th
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC). Creating jobs should be the top-most objective
of the government, she stressed.
Statistics from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security show that
young people entering the labor force will reach the peak during
2001-2005 period, averaging an annual growth of 2.9 million. This,
plus the laid-off workers, will bring the total unemployment up to
22-23 million every year. Yet, the number of jobs created each year
is about seven-eight million, leaving a gap of 14-15 million.
In
addition, there are nearly 150 million rural surplus labor seeking
jobs in cities, exerting a mounting pressure on employment.
Although the government is spending an increasingly amount of money
on ensuring the minimum cost of living for urban residents, there
is still a large number of urban poor falling victim of diseases
and natural disasters for their low levels of living and
education.
"The government should incorporate employment and reemployment as
part of the strategic objectives of macroeconomic control," said Ye
Weizhen. "The government should adopt such measures as job
counseling, increasing personal income tax for use to support the
development of the service sector, the labor-intensive industries
and private sector that have the promising largest capacity of
absorbing labor. In addition, the government should strengthen the
redistribution of income to narrow the gap between the rich and the
poor."
She proposed that the government provide the private sector of the
economy with equal opportunities as the public sector and treat it
equally with regard to financing, employment and land use.
She also said that community service is the potentially most
promising sector to take in labor with a comparatively low level of
education, especially laid-off workers who have lost their
advantages in age.
She called for great support to the healthy development of
mini-enterprises and family workshops, which she described as
"water-storage pool", namely, capable of absorbing a large number
of labor, but are still in the initial stage of development.
(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2003)
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