英语文摘:Economic Watch: All-out efforts made to ensure Chinese people's livelihoods

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- As sporadic resurgences of COVID-19 rage across China and the economy faces growing complexities and uncertainties, the country has been sparing no effort to make people's lives easier.

Earlier, a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee stressed the importance of ensuring and improving people's livelihoods.

To ensure the supply of necessities for regions experiencing COVID-19 resurgences, China's commerce ministry has been transporting goods from various locations to the affected regions, ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said.

The ministry has also increased the transport of agricultural products from neighboring provincial-level regions to help areas facing tightened COVID-19 prevention measures, Gao said.

With an eye on the long run, China has rolled out a slew of measures to help people live easier lives.

Employment is fundamental to people's well-being and social stability, and thus job creation has been put high on the policy agenda.

The job market cooled in March after a heady start in the first two months, with the urban unemployment rate edging up 0.3 percentage points from February to 5.8 percent.

Facing the more severe employment situation, the central government allocated 61.76 billion yuan (about 9.33 billion U.S. dollars) of employment subsidies this year, an increase of 5.17 billion yuan from a year ago.

To assist job seekers in better preparing for the labor market, China will provide them with no fewer than 1 million internship openings this year and allow localities to use the balance of the employment insurance funds to support vocational training programs.

Moreover, subsidies to aid people in need and ease the impact of the epidemic have increased to 154.68 billion yuan.

The country will continue to issue unemployment subsidies for all urban and rural unemployed people who are in the scheme and provide temporary living allowances to unemployed migrant workers while stabilizing the supply and price of necessities.

In enhancing people's food security, agricultural departments at all levels have been advancing spring farming and ensuring the supply of farm produce, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said.

Meanwhile, the smooth transportation of farm produce will be guaranteed.

Grain output is expected to reach 688 million tonnes in 2022 thanks to the country's preferential policies, according to a report released earlier.

In addition, China also vowed to improve the quality of medical and health services, securing the supply of medicine and ensuring quality supervision.

To this end, the per capita financial subsidy standard for residents' medical insurance and basic public health service funds will be raised by 30 yuan and 5 yuan, respectively.