Last year, we strived to improve people‟s wellbeing and accelerating the development of social programs. In the difficult circumstances of responding to the global financial crisis, we gave greater priority to ensuring and improving people‟s wellbeing and effectively solved the most practical problems of the greatest and most direct concern to the people.
1. We implemented a more active employment policy. We increased the responsibility of the government for stimulating employment. We encouraged enterprises to maintain or increase their levels of employment. We launched a series of employment service activities, created public-service jobs through multiple channels, and encouraged college graduates to take jobs at the primary level, enlist in the army, or join enterprises and institutions as interns.
2. We accelerated improvements in the social security system. We established a nationwide pension planning system at the provincial level, and introduced a method for transferring pension accounts for workers of urban enterprises, some of whom are rural migrant workers. We launched a pilot project for a new rural pension insurance system in 320 counties —a historic step forward in the development of China‟s social security system.
3. We made education more equitable. We increased education spending nationwide significantly and comprehensively implemented the urban and rural compulsory education policy. We implemented a performance-based pay system for compulsory education teachers. We started to implement the policy of free tuition for rural students attending secondary vocational schools whose families have financial difficulties. We constantly improved the national student financial aid system; which benefited 28.71 million students and basically ensured that no children from poor families were denied schooling due to financial difficulties.