Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has said the government should speed up
building a social security network and help with employment and
re-employment.
Zhu made the remarks during an inspection tour of northeastern
Liaoning Province. He said the province had made important progress
on its trial network of social security over the past year.
On
July 22-24, accompanied by Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo, Zhu visited
residential communities and a community vocational training center,
a medicare station and kindergarten in the cities of Shenyang and
Fushun.
Zhu noted that the system, which included programs for endowment
insurance, unemployment insurance and minimum living expenses, had
proved successful in helping reforms in state-owned enterprises and
retaining social stability.
The success in this traditional industry base was significant for
the system's application in other areas, Zhu said.
However, to complete such a system across the world's most populous
nation was no easy job, Zhu said.
He
asked state-owned enterprises to pay premiums for the retired and
allocate minimum living expenses to those made redundant.
Government funds for minimum living expenses should be guaranteed,
he said, adding that construction projects could be cut to save
government expenditure.
(Xinhua News
Agency July 25, 2002)