Is DPM LHL as talented as he has been made out to be, or does he need further guidance from PM and the SM ?
If the Government of the People's Republic of China - with a population that is more then 1000 times bigger than Singapore - can accept as the Government's responsibility to create jobs for the Citizens, it is amazing that a future PM of a 4.5Million Singapore Population is preparing a back door for his own possible failure.NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS
Beijing plans to create 14 million jobs this year
Rural migrants to cities will be assured of equal access to jobs under a unified labour market plan By Goh Sui Noi BEIJING -
Faced with 24 million people in need of work this year, China yesterday announced a slew of measures to contain urban joblessness and improve social security guarantees.
These include creating jobs for at least 14 million people, vocational training and wider unemployment insurance coverage. Rural residents seeking work in cities can also be assured of equal access to jobs when a plan to establish a 'unified' labour market in rural and urban areas is implemented later in the year.
'Employment will continue to be a major issue in coming years and the situation is grim,' Labour and Security Minister Zheng Silin admitted at a press conference on the sidelines of the current session of the National People's Congress.
Urban unemployment is expected to rise this year from last year's 4.5 per cent, but will be capped at 4.7 per cent. The jobless rate in 2002 was 4.3 per cent.
China has seen urban unemployment rise as restructuring of troubled state-owned enterprises leads to redundancy and as new workers enter the job market.
In addition, surplus rural labour has been placed at between 150 million and 300 million.
This year, the number of urban jobless workers is expected to hit 14 million while the number of new job seekers will reach 10 million.
The government expects to create 14 million new jobs, including five million jobs for the unemployed, leaving another 10 million without jobs.At the same time as it is expanding employment through developing labour-intensive businesses, the ministry will strengthen vocational training of workers, including rural migrants.
Measures will also be taken to ensure that the closing down and restructuring of state firms take place in a 'planned and phased manner' to contain the unemployment rate.
The dilemma for the Chinese government is that the necessary restructuring of state firms has led to massive layoffs, which could shake social stability.
On the issue of rural migrant workers who now number 93 million but are expected to increase at a rate of about 10 million yearly, Mr Zheng said that ensuring equal access to employment for them was a 'leading component' of the work to be done by his ministry.
This includes the establishment of a unified labour market in rural and urban areas, providing employment training to rural migrant workers, protecting their rights and interests, providing better services to them and meting out punishment to employers who discriminate against them.
On social security, Mr Zheng said work would continue to put in place a social security system that would cover the entire urban population, ranging from health and unemployment to pensions for retirees.For a start, a trial social security system in Liaoning will be extended this year to two other rust-belt provinces in the north-east, Heilongjiang and Jilin.
There are no plans yet for a comprehensive social security system to cover the 800 million Chinese living in the countryside.
But some rich coastal provinces have started pilot social security schemes for their rural populations, which benefit 60 million, and the ministry will continue to push these programmes.
For them, the 'most effective way' was to have strict land protection, restrict land requisition, and compensate and provide for the livelihood of those whose land is requisitioned, said Mr Zheng.
'Their land is their strongest social security,' he noted.http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,239242,00.html?
