The press conference on the State Council’s guideline on reform of China's household registration system

(en.nhfpc.gov.cn)

Updated: 2014-08-24

Yang Zhiming: Many years of practice have proved that stable employment or business operation in urban areas is the foothold for migrant workers. The government will improve and stabilize migrant workers’ employment via the following four ways. First, we will carry out skill enhancement projects. Now we have entered a new era of promoting migrant workers’ employment by upgrading their skills. On a national level, around one-third of all migrant workers have received government-funded skills training, and two-thirds have not. The “migrant worker occupational skill promoting program” started this year will train more than 20 million people every year across China. The “Chunchao initiative” launched by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the “Yang’guang project” of the Ministry of Agriculture, the “Xinghuo plan” of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the “Yulu plan” of the State Council Leading Group for Development of Underdeveloped Regions have been training the newly transferred and employed agricultural population. By 2020, all migrant workers would have received some government-funded skills training. We shall further enhance the employability and entrepreneurial abilities of migrant workers to help most migrant workers become skilled workers and help qualified ones become senior artisans and technicians. 2014-07-30 10:32:59

Yang Zhiming: On the other hand, we shall strive to develop the third industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and labor-intensive business, which hold larger capacity for migrant worker employment. For instance, domestic service now provides 20 million jobs, still leaving a 10 million-development space from the 30 million demand in the case that 15 percent of Chinese families need the service, given the fact that internationally the demand is usually as high as 30 percent. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the primary channels for migrant worker employment as they are more flexible in development, more rapid in payment and greater in job number. So, we should use multiple channels to improve career services for migrant workers and try hard to solve practical problems. 2014-07-30 10:43:55

Yang Zhiming: Fourth, we shall complete a national network for migrant worker employment information to provide free consultation services on employment information and policy, and thus make contributions to the formation of a labor transfer path with Chinese characteristics. Thank you. 2014-07-30 10:49:33

China National Radio and www.cnrmz.com: I noticed that there are such stipulations in the guideline to ensure the children of the transferred agricultural population have equal access to education resources, and to bring them into the coverage of the community health and family planning system. I’d like to learn more details about the two aspects from the Ministry of Education and from the National Health and Family Planning Commission. Thank you. 2014-07-30 10:56:50

Liu Limin: I will answer the first question. The question you brought up is a very important one because it comes to education equality. The Party Central Committee and the State Council have been attaching great importance to the education problem of migrant workers’ children. The Ministry of Education has carried out effective measures with the joint efforts of other departments to actively promote migrant workers’ children taking school entrance exams in their inflow areas.

The first measure is to push inclusive preschool education. In the year 2010, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance together launched a three-year initiative plan on preschool education on the basis of the State Council’s Several Opinions on Current Development of Preschool Education. In this plan, we conducted a project named general subsidies for urban preschool education, which supports local government and inclusive kindergartens to enroll migrant workers’ children. This project has benefited 3 million children in three years. This is the first measure. 2014-07-30 10:57:30

Liu Limin: The second measure is to promote public school-based compulsory education among migrant workers’ children. In this respect, we adopted a local government-based and public school-based policy. You may have noticed that the number of migrant workers’ children admitted by public schools has been increasing by the millions every year. By the end of 2013, 80 percent of the some 12 million migrant workers’ children were studying in public schools. 2014-07-30 10:58:44