Migrants, farmers highlighted

The Premier vowed in the report to formulate and implement a method for old-age pensions for the country's 130 million rural migrant workers, and, at the same time, to introduce a method for transferring old-age pension accounts for workers moving from one region to another.

The government also aims to expand social security programs to cover more "employees in the non-public sector, rural migrant workers, and farmers whose land was expropriated".

Starting from this year, the government will introduce a new policy in all rural areas to subsidize hospitalized childbirth, provide regular prenatal checkups and postpartum visits for women, and monitor the growth of infants and toddlers less than three years of age to prevent birth defects, he said.

China has established several policies concerning social welfare since 1984. By 2008, about 219 million people have pensions and about 317 million have basic medical insurance. An additional 124 million have unemployment insurance, 138 million have work injury insurance and 91 million have childbirth insurance.

China has to invest 5.74 trillion yuan by 2020 in building an all-round social welfare system to enhance people's livelihood, according to the China Development Research Foundation, a government think tank.

The amount will cover all aspects including pension, education, health care, housing, employment and aid to rural residents and migrant workers, the foundation said in a report.

Spending in the next three years will top 2.6 trillion yuan, the report said.

The foundation's chairman Wang Mengkui said the social welfare system should keep pace with the the country's economic development, which was essential to "solve the problem" of the imbalance between urban and rural areas and among regions and to benefit the whole population.

Legal base for safety net

China's draft law on social insurance, which aims to create a universal safety net for the country's 1.3 billion people, underwent its second reading by the top legislature last December.

The draft specifies a common right for citizens, urban and rural alike, to pay premiums and enjoy old-age pensions and insurance for medical care, work injuries, unemployment and childbirth.

To address the concerns of migrant workers, the social insurance draft law allows Chinese citizens to pay pension premiums in one place and draw money in another if they migrate to other cities or provinces.

This stipulation is particularly significant as the country has a much more mobile population than in the past.

The draft also determined that a new rural medical system, in which farmers and governments raise funds together, would be included in the medical insurance plan.