Premier Wen Jiabao Friday pledged to intensify job creation and
social security work to further improve people's lives, saying that
the government's targets for 2004 are to create 9 million jobs for
urban residents and get 5 million laid-off workers reemployed.
In his government work report delivered at the opening of the
parliament's annual session, he said that in 2004, China will
continue to follow an energetic employment policy, focusing on
effectively implementing the policies of fiscal and credit support
and tax cuts and exemptions.
The central government will allocate 8.3 billion yuan (US$1
billion) in this year's budget to subsidize reemployment, 3.6
billion yuan (US$0.43 billion) more than last year.
The government will expand the avenues for employment and
emphasize the development of labor-intensive industries, small and
medium-sized enterprises and the non-public sector of the economy,
promote flexible and diverse types of employment and encourage
people to find jobs on their own or become self-employed.
He called for the need to develop a fully functioning
reemployment assistance mechanism, giving people with difficulties
in finding jobs on their own hiring preference in non-profit
undertakings funded by the government.
The government will support efforts of large and medium-sized
State-owned enterprises to separate their secondary lines of
business from their core business, turn their secondary lines into
independent companies, and reassign their redundant personnel to
these new companies, the premier said.
He said that the government will focus our support on
reemployment of laid-off workers in old industrial bases, cities
and industrial and mining areas whose locally available natural
resources have been exhausted, and the defense industry and the
coal and logging industries.
China will improve the system of employment services to provide
better job training and guidance and assist people to find job
opportunities.
He went on to say this year is another peak year for college
graduates entering the job market and ex-servicemen being
transferred to civilian jobs, so the government needs to work hard
to provide them with effective employment guidance and
services.
"We need to build a social security network suited to China's
conditions and the level of our economic development," he said.
In 2004, the central government will allocate 77.9 billion yuan
(US$9.39 billion) in subsidies for needy urban residents, up 11
percent over last year. Local governments will also spend more in
this area.
He pledged to take better care of urban and rural residents with
special difficulties and continue to improve the system of social
relief and assistance and help those families that cannot afford
medical treatment, tuition for their children, housing or heating
in winter.
The government will reduce and exempt taxes in disaster-
afflicted rural areas and provide relief to the affected people who
have difficulties in their production and daily lives. "We will
show our concern for the disabled and support programs that benefit
them," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2004)