With the implementation of the
Tenth Five-Year Plan, for National Economic and Social Development (2001-2005) in 2001,
Targets and Tasks
The targets for labor and social
security development in the early part of this century are as follows: initially forming a
comparatively complete labor and social security system corresponding to the development
level of China's productive forces and meeting the requirements of the socialist market
economy; ensuring well-nigh full employment and basic social security for the majority of
workers; safeguarding the legal rights and interests of both employees and employers;
enhancing the material and cultural wellbeing of rural and urban residents; and promoting
economic development and social stability. The main tasks are to gradually improve the
quality of workers and the employment structure, initially form a market-oriented
employment mechanism, strive to promote employment, standardize and improve the statistics
on unemployment rate, and control the registered rural and urban unemployment rate to
within 5 percent; actively adjust labor relations and keep them harmonious and stable;
improve the macro regulation and control system of income distribution, work out a
rational income distribution relationship, and achieve an approximately 5 percent annual
increase in both the per capita disposable income of urban residents and the net per
capita income of rural residents; speed up the development of the urban social security
system, improve the methods and operating mechanism of fund raising, and promote the
socialization of social security management and services; with farmers' old-age security
and health security of multiple forms as the guide, actively explore in rural areas a
basic security system suited to the socialist market economy system and the country's
economic development level and set up a system to help the weak group in society to take
care of their own life and work.
Policies and Measures
-- Carry out an
active policy for promoting employment and do everything possible to enlarge the scale of
employment. Rapid economic growth shall be maintained, domestic demands shall be expanded,
and new employment opportunities created to the full, so as to increase total employment.
The employment structure for labor force should be improved, and great efforts made to
develop labor-intensive industries and enterprises. Tertiary industry, small and
medium-sized enterprises and the non-public sectors of the economy shall be taken as the
main channels for the enlargement of employment. Preferential policies shall be further
carried out so as to help laid-off and jobless people to find reemployment.
-- Establish a unified and standardized labor market, make a unified plan for
rural and urban employment, and ameliorate the employment service system. The reform of
the labor personnel system and the household registration system shall be deepened, and
efforts made to guide the orderly flow of the labor force between urban and rural areas or
between regions so as to promote the transfer of surplus agricultural labor. The service
of public job agencies shall be improved and community-run job agencies encouraged to
develop along healthy lines.
-- Improve the
quality of workers in an all-round way and adopt flexible forms of employment. The labor
reserve system and employment permit system shall be carried out. Vocational education,
continuing education and reemployment training shall be strengthened, and the professional
qualification certification system enforced. More attention shall be paid to job skill
training for rural workers, and a sound job training system established and improved in
rural areas step by step. Flexible forms of employment shall be adopted, and finding
employment on one's own encouraged.
-- Consolidate and improve the labor contract system, make great efforts to
carry forward the group contract system and promote the establishment of a tripartite
coordination mechanism for labor relations. Active efforts shall be made to formulate and
revise the state's basic labor standards, and a labor standard system suitable to
-- Promote the reform of the wage and income distribution system and
establish an incentive and restraining mechanism for income distribution. The minimum wage
system shall be improved and the wage guidelines and the guidance price level system for
the labor market be enforced across-the-board. Efforts shall be made to continue the
experiments in the collective wage consultation system, standardize the payment of wages
and guarantee the legal rights and interests of employees with respect to their work
remuneration.
-- Deepen the reform
of the social security system, speed up the building of the social security system and
actively implement the pilot program for its improvement. For this, we need to establish a
reliable and stable social security fund-raising mechanism, restructure financial
expenditure, increase necessary input and the amount of social security funds, and
rationally adjust the payment rate and substitution level, and improve the operational
efficiency of social security funds and the efficiency rate of investment. The social
security macro-regulation and supervision system shall be bettered and its management
level and efficiency raised, so as to ensure the stable, healthy and orderly operation of
the social security system.
-- Improve the basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance systems
and encourage employing units, where conditions are favorable, to set up annuity and
supplementary medical insurance programs for their employees. Further steps shall be taken
to improve the unemployment insurance system and make the basic livelihood guarantee
system for laid-off personnel from state-owned enterprises part of the unemployment
insurance scheme. Development of the industrial injury and childbirth insurance systems
shall be accelerated. The basic old-age pension insurance system for employees of state
organs and institutions shall be improved. The system for ensuring a minimum standard of
living for urban residents shall be standardized. We shall accelerate community building
and promote the socialization of social security. We shall explore diverse forms of
security and push forward the building of the basic security system in the rural areas. We
need to improve our policies concerning social relief, social mutual aid, the special care
and placement system and social welfare, and safeguard the legal rights and interests of
women, minors, the elderly and the handicapped.
-- Establish a
supervision and management system concerning social security funds through a combination
of administrative supervision, social supervision and internal institutional control.
While establishing and improving the social security system, we shall explore the right
path for investment management and establish a fund supervision and management system
coordinative with the fund management system in accordance with the fund management
principles of different security projects. We shall work hard to guarantee or increase the
value of the social security funds and resolve the operational risks of the security
funds, so as to safeguard social safety and stability.
-- Press ahead with the legal system building in the labor and social
security fields, improve the labor and social security supervision system, steadily
enhance the overall quality of supervision and law-enforcement personnel, carry out
supervision activities of diverse forms, and push forward the organic integration of labor
security supervision and law-enforcement departments with all social sectors in
implementing legal supervision. We shall strengthen the building of the labor security
management information system and the popularization of the scientific findings in this
aspect so as to improve the scientific, standardized, institutionalized and IT management
of the labor and social security undertakings.