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A social security network is gradually taking shape as China's
market-oriented economic reform advances.
"The reform is like a train and social security is like the rails
which should be paved wherever the train arrives," said Chen Haibo,
a deputy to the ongoing National People's Congress (NPC) and
director of the Labor and Social Security Department of Northeast
China's Liaoning Province.
By
the end of last year, the province had established insurance for
the elderly covering 6.69 million workers and 2.8 million retirees,
and medical insurance covering 6.17 million people, according to
Chen.
Some 1.5 million urban residents in Liaoning also receive a
sustenance allowance to ensure a minimum living standard.
The State Council selected Liaoning in 2001 as a pilot region to
establish an urban social security network.
Liaoning is one of China's oldest industrial centers and has the
most laid-off workers and retirees nationwide. The pilot scheme
aims to assist the country's millions of jobless and elderly to
facilitate the restructuring of state sectors.
Although subsidies from the central government are still needed,
Liaoning has formed stable and multi-layer finance channels for the
social security network, Chen said.
The provincial congress has also enacted several local ordinances
to supervise the use of social security funds.
"The focus of our job this year is to integrate the sustenance
allowance for laid-off workers into the unemployment insurance
scheme, which is a more standard form of security," he said.
Premier Zhu Rongji, in his report to the NPC last week, said social
security was "of vital importance" to state company reforms and
said the trial scheme in Liaoning Province had "marked
effects."
(China Daily March 10, 2003)
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