Joint efforts between China and Britain are being stepped up to
address the problems of unemployment and urban poverty that China
is encountering during its economic transition, after Wednesday's
launch of the Sino-British Unemployment Insurance Project.
A
collaboration project between the Ministry of Labour and Social
Security and the British Government's Department of International
Development, it aims to promote an integrated, equitable and
efficient unemployment insurance system by being first established
in six cities in Northeast China's Liaoning
Province - a center for state-owned industries - and Southwest
China's
Sichuan Province.
"It has provided us with a nice opportunity to learn advanced ideas
and technology from our British counterparts to help our decision
makers in these two provinces develop a paradigm of a performance
management system, which is suggested to be a reference for the
dissemination to other places across the country," said Zhang
Xiaojian, Labour and Social Security vice-minister.
Both sides will also send experts to the provinces to improve the
professionalism of staff at local social security departments.
The project value totals 3 million pounds (US$5 million) and it
will take three years to complete.
"Three consultative documents on policy issues at the provincial
level will be prepared and a limited amount of investment will also
be offered for computer-based information systems to support the
key project objectives," said Sir Christopher Hum, British
ambassador to China.
Though unemployment insurance began to play a role in China in the
mid-1980s, it was limited to state-owned enterprises (SOEs). But in
recent years, its coverage has expanded, said another ministry
official, Mao Jian.
In
1997, 76 percent of unemployment insurance holders were past SOE
employees and the percentage dropped to 51 last year.
By
September 2002, the number of people shielded by unemployment
insurance totaled 101 million, an increase of 36 million from 1989,
official statistics show.
(China Daily February 20, 2003)