News

No one left out in province's improvements

By Song Wenwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-05 07:37

Jiangsu Party chief, Luo Zhijun (right), visiting the mother of Li Yunlong, a village Party head in Nanjing, who worked long and hard to help villagers rise out of poverty, but died of cancer in 2003. Li was praised for his devotion to duty and the development of the countryside. Photos Provided to China Daily

Jiangsu's government has an ambitious goal: doubling the incomes of urban and rural people, in less than a decade, to keep pace with the economy and improve their livelihood.

"People's livelihood is a fundamental issue with us," Luo Zhijun, Party secretary of Jiangsu Committee, told the delegates to the 11th provincial people's congress in the province capital Nanjing on Feb 10 .

"The government will adjust the distribution of income to make it more reasonable and lessen the income gap," Luo explained, promising to help rural folk earning less than 2,500 yuan, annually, shake off poverty this year.

To protect workers' interests, the authorities will establish a better minimum wage system, he added.

Employment and housing

To improve the job market, the provincial government has promised a more active employment policy, in spite of the uncertainties in the global economy.

In the move to provide more jobs, priority will be given to college graduates, rural migrant workers, and veterans.

The government plans to establish a unified human resources system that gives workers employment information and vocational training.

Luo said the government will help one million urbanites in general, and 360,000 laid-off workers, find jobs this year.

They will also look after the interests of households who have to be relocated because of demolished buildings and compensate them adequately.

Luo said they plan to raise the level of social security and provide people with better insurance: "We need better legal assistance for disadvantaged people and improved education and medical care systems. We'll also support charity work."

The government's goal is to help 450,000 households in dealing with their housing problems this year and get funds to build housing for low-income urbanites.

Companies are being encouraged to take part in this, both in building housing and providing rentals.

"We'll increase the monitoring of the property market and are determined to stop housing prices from going up too quickly," Luo said.

"The real estate market needs to grow in a steady, healthy way."

Development in cultural sector

Since Jiangsu has plenty of cultural resources, Luo continued, they want to be "strong culturally and have a better, wider cultural service system".

What this means, to give one example, is access to cable TV for more than 77 percent of the rural households this year.

It also means greater emphasis on related industries, for instance, publishing, the Internet, film, TV, and animation.

One specific example of this, according to Luo, is the provincial government's help in preparing for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in the provincial capital Nanjing.

Jiangsu badly needs to increase the pace of education modernization through mid- and long-range reform, Luo said.

"We'll put more money into education, promote educational fairness, and improve its overall quality."

He said they will see to it that each student from a poor family gets the financial aid needed to complete their schooling.

The government plans to increase spending on medical services and encourage the use of private capital for hospital construction.

"We have to improve our management ability and be innovative to have a stable, harmonious society," Luo concluded.

(China Daily 03/05/2011 page10)