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

So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Vice-Minister of Finance Wang Bao’an for the second question. 2014-07-30 10:14:15

Wang Bao’an: The financial policy design has laid a solid foundation for the connection of government transfer payment and household registration reform. In the past two years, in accordance with the deepening hukou reform, we have been carrying out useful research on matching and coordinating the transfer payment system and the hukou system. As for general transfer payments, we cover the permanent population by converting the overhanging part of the permanent population over the registered population at a certain proportion. In the case of transfer payment for equalization, it has taken the urbanization of the agricultural population into account. To be specific, the transferred-payment system of education is in line with a student’s school registration, so that a student can enjoy the same public service whether he or she comes from an urban area or rural area. As a result, the achievements we have made in previous reforms lay a good foundation for further reforms. 2014-07-30 10:18:03

Wang Bao’an: Second, in accordance to the guideline released today, and with the goal of closely cooperating and coordinating with the household registration reform, public service reform and the country’s information construction, we will continue to improve the financial policy, especially transfer payment mechanism and regulation, to facilitate the orderly flow of the population and the healthy development of new urbanization. 2014-07-30 10:21:51

China News Service: I have two questions. First, is there any updated data for the total number of China’s migrant workers? Second, what measures will be adopted to enhance migrant workers’ stable employment and hukou transfer to urban areas? Thank you. 2014-07-30 10:26:05

Yang Zhiming: Thank you for your concern for migrant workers. As Vice-Minister Huang Ming just mentioned, the aim of this household registration reform is to help 100 million migrant workers and other urban populations get registered. Migrant workers are the majority of China’s transferred agricultural population, and they are rapidly growing labor forces developed in the wake of China’s industrialization and urbanization process since reform and opening-up. Therefore, the ongoing hukou reform plays a significant role for migrant workers to integrate into cities. Meanwhile, the agricultural labor transfer with Chinese characteristics features employment-driven, farmland reserving and progressive hukou transfer. You asked about the number of migrant workers, by the end of last year, the total number of peasant workers in China reached 269 million; 166 million of them went out as migrant workers. By the end of this June, the number of migrant workers grew to 174 million, an increase of 3.07 million over the same period last year. Despite steady growth and a slowing growth rate, the migrant workers changed their geographical distribution, with faster growth in West and Central China than the East. From the point of business, the manufacturing, construction and service industries still dominate employment, while the proportion of the service industry has seen a gradual rise.