CRI听力：Ministers Vow to Promote Employment, Improve Social Assistance

In the past five years, China has worked hard to provide employment and to develop a social assistance system for both the urban and the rural areas.

At the ongoing session of the country's top legislature, the minister of Labor and Social Security and the minister of Civil Affairs have vowed to enact more comprehensive measures for increasing employment and improving the social assistance system.

CRI's Yang Yong has more.

Reporter:

Labor and Social Security Minister Tian Chengping says at present the employment situation in China is still severe, despite an increase of 51 million jobs in the urban areas in the last five years. He says about 20 million new laborers are added to the urban and rural work force every year, and the country will have this large new labor force for quite a time to come.

But the minister says the government is working hard to ensure employment.

"We will attach more importance to increasing employment opportunities in the economic and social development sectors. We will also find ways to make the economy and the increased work force interact together in a positive way. We must perfect and put into effect positive policies for creating job opportunities and encourage people to create their own opportunities by starting small businesses."

He says employment opportunities can be created through the service system by providing better services for job seekers.

Meanwhile, concerning the country's fight against poverty, Minister of Civil Affairs Li Xueju says China has virtually completed the formation of a social assistance system.

"The social assistance system includes the urban and rural minimum living standards, disaster response, medical aid, housing aid, educational and legal aid systems."(www.hXen.com)

The minister says it is both a responsibility and a long-term commitment for the government to assist the people in need. He says in recent years, China has increased funding to the minimum living standard for urban and rural residents; the figure last year reached 27 billion Yuan, or 3.8 billion US dollars. The medical aid system has also been established. Over 400 million disaster victims in the country received aid from 2003 to 2007.

He adds that the social assistance system is still in its infancy and unbalanced implementation does exist in some urban and rural areas, but they will take effective measures to bring the assistance standards to a higher level.