China to support labor-intensive businesses to create jobs
27/10/2008 16:18
In face of the international financial meltdown, the Chinese government
will support labor-intensive enterprises, small and mid-sized businesses, the
private companies and the service sector in order to maintain a stable
unemployment rate.
"The ongoing international financial crisis which was
triggered by the US sub-prime mortgage debacle has affected the employment
situation in China, particularly many export-oriented enterprises, " said the
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) spokesman Yin Chengji
in Beijing today.
The country created 9.36 million jobs in the first three
quarters, and helped another 4.09 million laid-off workers re-employed, he told
a press conference.
By the end of September, China had a registered
unemployment rate of four percent, with about 8.3 million being unemployed. The
unemployment rate was the same as what the country had at the end of last
year.
To keep the unemployment rate stable in face of the international
financial crisis, Yin said, the government was going to support labor-intensive
enterprises, small and mid-sized businesses, the private companies and the
service sector.
To bail out businesses in difficulty, the government decided
to increase credits and loans to them and offer them more tariff refunds for
exports, he said.
The spokesman said the government would take further
responsibility of creating jobs by offering taxation, financing and other
incentives for start-up businesses.
Further coordination with related
governmental bodies will be made to increase employment of graduates from
colleges and universities.
The government would also provide more career
training for laid-off workers, helping them be re-employed as soon as possible,
Yin said.
The government has transferred 219,000 labors from areas, which
were hit by a massive earthquake on May 12 in southwest China's Sichuan
Province, to other places for new jobs. Another 865,000 people were aided by the
government to find jobs in places where they live.
About 215 million workers
joined the nationwide urban pension system, nearly 274 million participated in
the basic medical care system, 122 million were in the unemployment insurance
mechanism, 135 million were covered by the work injury insurance and 88 million
were in the maternity insurance, the ministry figures show.
The government
will start tryouts to establish a pension system in rural areas and expand the
urban pension system to rural migrating labors, Yin said.
For the past three
decades since the country adopted the reform and open-up policy, Yin said, China
has achieved greatly in the social security cause, shifting from a mechanism
that state companies covered all social security for their employees to a new
one that workers would resort to the society for their pensions and other
job-related insurances.
While the governmental funds covering part of
pensions and insurances, Yin said, employers and employees are responsible for
jointly creating individual pension and medical insurance accounts for
employees' later use.
The Chinese authorities planned to build a nationwide
social security net by the year 2020, covering all urbanites and rural
residents.
"With regard to the target," Yin said, "we still have a tough road
ahead."
Yin said his ministry was working with other government offices to
revise the draft social security law.
"The law would assure a comprehensive
social security network, better social welfare for the Chinese people, more
effective governance of the funds and easier services to the public," Yin
said.
Xinhua
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