China pledges continued reform to boost development, employment

BEIJING - China's State Council on Wednesday mapped out key tasks for economic system reform this year, stressing continued reform efforts to boost development and prepare for the tough job of ensuring employment.

The country should continue to boost reform in key sectors with supply-side structural reform as the main theme, according to a statement released after a State Council executive meeting, which was chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

All departments should lose no time in detailing key reform plans in accordance with the tasks put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and make concrete steps in reform tasks such as capacity reduction, it said.

Work should be done to improve government services, strengthen mechanisms to facilitate innovation-driven development and promote reforms in areas such as opening-up, environmental protection, education and health-care.

The employment situation for China this year is "grim," and the government should make employment a priority and implement more proactive policies, the statement said.

When formulating major economic policies, authorities should comprehensively evaluate their potential influence on employment, it said, calling for more efforts to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship.

The State Council urged support for those with difficulties in finding work, especially college graduates and workers who lost jobs in production capacity cuts, encouraging local governments to offer them subsidies and assistance.

Authorities should also enhance vocational training and employment services and support entrepreneurship and innovation by graduates who have returned from abroad, it added.

The government has set a higher employment target of 11 million new urban jobs this year, one million more than last year's target.