According to a Xinhua news report (12 March), Jiang Zemin, president of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, reminded his cadres that the "labour of workers must be respected and their legitimate rights and interests should be protected". He also emphasized the importance of setting up of a social security system to ensure social stability. Jiang made the remarks after he received reports from delegations of Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces at separate panel discussions during the ongoing annual session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC). Jiang urged CPC committees and governments at all levels "to fully recognize the importance in increasing
job opportunities in urban and rural areas."

A report in China Daily (11 March) states that half of the country's 60 million poor and needy people are in urban areas. The majority of the 30 million urban needy are laid-off and unemployed workers, accounting for 7-10 percent of the total urban population. According to the report, more than five million workers laid-off from state-owned enterprises failed to find new jobs by the end of 2001. The actual number of unemployed is estimated to be much higher than the official statistics. More unemployment is expected to follow China's entry into the World Trade Organization.

Premier Zhu Rongji pledged in his report to the NPC opening session that: "the government will improve the unemployment insurance system, and at the same time, strengthen the system of providing minimum cost of living allowances for urban residents, so that all eligible poor urban residents will have their essential needs met". Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng echoed Zhu's promise by announcing said that in 2002, a total of 86 billion yuan (USD 1 billion) for social security programs would be earmarked for the urban needy. The sum represents an unprecedented 28 percent rise over last year's central budget. According to the China Daily report, expenditure from the central government on social security programs in 2001 was already 5.18 times the figure for 1998. The government has embarked on restructuring and reforming the social security system since the late 1980s, as a result of economic structuring. Nevertheless, the system suffers from vast problems of mismanagement, corruption and lack of resources, which has left most of the country's poor people extremely vulnerable.

(Sources: China's news agencies)

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Online: 2002-03-14