China's top leaders on Wednesday wrapped up a key meeting on
economic policies for 2008, emphasizing the need for efforts to
improve the people's livelihood and to build a harmonious
society.
The three-day Central Economic Work Conference, the most
important annual economic policy-making meeting which came about
six weeks after the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party
of China, has placed unprecedented emphasis on the welfare of the
people.
"Increased efforts to improve the people's livelihood will start
with the most realistic problems, which people are concerned about
most and are most directly related to people's interests," said the
meeting.
To boost employment, the government will encourage people to
start their own businesses, improve the training system for
workers, offer a good employment service for college graduates and
extend timely help for jobless families.
Latest statistics showed that 9.2 million urban residents found
jobs in the first nine months of the year, while 810,000 out of the
847,000 jobless families nationwide obtained employment.
As China's economic boom of recent years has been accompanied by
a widening gap between the rich and the poor, the meeting called
for "rational income distribution" in order to better share the
benefits of the spectacular economic and social development.
Residents in both urban and rural areas, especially low-income
people, will be better paid, it said. A mechanism will be
established to ensure "normal pay rises" for company employees and
to guarantee the payment.
During his visit to some needy citizens in Beijing last month,
Premier Wen Jiabao called on employers in the country to offer
higher salaries and to strictly abide by the rules on minimum
wages.
"Prices have been on the rise these days and I'm aware that even
a one-yuan (0.13 U.S. dollars) increase in prices will affect
people's lives," he said.
The meeting vowed to improve China's social security system,
with more urban residents to be covered by pension and medical
insurance.
In the countryside, an endowment insurance system will be set
up, while the cooperative medical insurance, under which the
government helps fund farmers' medical expenses, will continue to
expand. It currently covered 85 percent of the country's rural
residents.
The government will increase investment in education, exempting
all the students in the country from paying tuition fees in the
nine-year compulsory education, the meeting said.
The meeting also promised the common people better medical
services and more low-rental houses. And the government will spend
more fiscal revenue on underdeveloped provinces to reduce the
regional wealth gap, it said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2007)
