China will retrain farmers and build up rural labor markets
as early as next year, the participants of a social welfare
seminar in Beijing indicated.
"In cooperation
with other ministries, we will take new measures to create
employment opportunities for surplus rural workers,"
said Lin Yongsan, vice-minister of the Ministry of Labor and
Social Security.
Some of these measures
may be written into the next Five-Year Plan (2001-2005).
Official figures
show that China now has 490 million potential workers in rural
areas but only 200 million jobs for them.
Lin and others
spoke at a seminar sponsored by the Labor and Social Security
Ministry.
The same ministry
should strengthen training efforts in rural areas to help
more farmers diversify their skills and make them more employable,
Lin said.
The training plan
is expected to cover all rural laborers who have finished
high school or worked part-time in cities.
"The retraining
has proven the most efficient way to make farmers upgrade
their knowledge and skills to compete in the employment market,"
Lin said.
In cooperation
with the Ministry of Agriculture, Lin's ministry would also
accelerate the development of rural enterprises.
He did not mention
any specifics but said this development would help rural economies
and thereby create jobs.
He indicated that
some local labor markets would be established in the next
few years. "We want to shape uniform, open and competitive
rural labor markets nationwide," said Lin.
Lin said the ministry
would also take advantage of the national push to develop
central and western China by creating more jobs in those areas.
Liu Jian, vice-minister
of the Ministry of Agriculture, said at the seminar that his
agency will also join efforts to develop China's interior.
"We will co-operate with the Ministry of Labor and Social
Security to encourage the establishment of rural enterprises,"
Liu said.
He said the vast
surplus workforce could be a big advantage to the region's
development.
Both ministries pledged to keep a close eye on rural social
welfare, saying more concrete and careful investigations on
the issue would be carried out over the next few years.
(China Daily 01/15/2000)
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