China News Agency, Beijing, March 1st: How does China respond to "what the people want"?

  Author Xu Xueying

  In 2022, there will be 12.06 million new urban jobs in China throughout the year, 244 billion yuan of inter-provincial adjustment funds will guarantee the payment of pensions, and 52,500 old communities will be newly rebuilt, with 8.76 million households... In the past year, China has effectively coordinated epidemic prevention and control. Control and economic and social development, this "transcript" of people's livelihood is hard-won.

  The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we must insist on safeguarding and improving people's livelihood in the process of development.

Today, we are trying our best to "strive for the economy" in order to let the fruits of economic and social development benefit the people's livelihood, and continue to realize "the people's yearning for a better life."

  In an interview with China News Agency, Yan Yilong, deputy dean of the National Conditions Research Institute of Tsinghua University, said that the combination of people's livelihood and expanding domestic demand is still the government's policy focus this year.

  With the two sessions coming up, what are the new changes in employment, education, population, housing and other policies?

How will China draw up a blueprint for people's livelihood in response to "what the people want"?

Data map: At the job fair, job seekers are looking for their favorite positions.

Photo by Liang Hongtao

The new employment situation "flowers" more at ease

  Employment is connected with the people's livelihood at one end and with domestic demand and supply at the other end.

For some time to come, the domestic market will dominate the national economic cycle, and consumption will become the main driving force for China's economic growth.

Only by allowing the people to have jobs and earn money, and the people's "money bags" to bulge up and dare to consume, can economic growth and consumption promotion form a positive cycle.

  Wang Pingping, director of the Population and Employment Statistics Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, pointed out that the unemployment rate of the youth labor force survey is still high, and the number of college graduates will reach 11.58 million in 2023.

It is imminent to help key groups such as college graduates, migrant workers, and people out of poverty to find jobs and start businesses.

  Chen Jianwei, an associate researcher at the National Institute for Opening-up at the University of International Business and Economics, believes that it is necessary not only to alleviate the employment pressure of graduates driven by economic recovery and growth, but also to improve the adaptability of higher education to economic development and industrial restructuring to help college students adapt to the transformation of the labor market.

  At present, when the structural contradictions in employment are still prominent, and "employment difficulty" and "labor shortage" coexist, how to implement the detailed employment priority policy, broaden the channels for human capital flow, reduce the unemployment rate of urban youth, and increase the labor saturation of migrant workers should be Representatives of the two sessions pay attention to hot spots.

Data map: Students enter the campus.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Ma Mingyan

"Learning" is more comfortable with the new atmosphere of education

  The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that we must "run education well that satisfies the people."

For the first time in the report, education, science and technology, and talents are arranged in a "three-in-one" manner, highlighting the synergy and system integration among the three.

At present, digitalization is reshaping the education ecology, new technologies empower education, and the education industry under the "double reduction" also sees new opportunities for development.

Education must promote the gathering of talents and the transformation of science and technology, and become a fast variable and strong variable in economic and social development.

  In the 2023 National Education Work Conference, "fairer and higher quality" has become the key word of basic education.

How to narrow the gap between different groups of people in terms of educational opportunities and quality, to achieve equal opportunities, and how to speed up the solution to "going to school" on the basis of comprehensively solving "going to school" are all concerns of the people.

Data map: Medical staff look after babies.

Photo by Sun Ying

In the new stage of the population, "living" is more satisfactory

  According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2022, China will experience negative population growth for the first time in nearly 61 years.

In the past year, China had a population of 9.56 million births, which was less than half of the 20 million newborn population in the early 1990s. Some scholars also described this as a "population collapse."

  Population, as the main body of production and consumption, directly affects economic and social development.

From the supply side, negative population growth will affect economic output through the labor market.

According to the data of the National Health and Medical Commission, it is estimated that around 2035, China will enter a stage of severe population aging.

At this stage, various supporting measures for childbearing have no obvious effect on stimulating childbearing in the short term.

  In Yan Yilong's view, the core proposition of dealing with negative population growth is to implement comprehensive measures to break the "low birth rate trap".

It should be considered from the whole cycle of marriage, education, raising, and teaching, from the perspective of economic burden, women's career development, and social and cultural psychology.

In terms of policy guarantees, we should improve the childbearing support policy system, reduce childcare costs, severely crack down on employment discrimination, and protect the rights of women who give birth to career development, etc.; in terms of social culture, we should strive to break through the "involved" lifestyle centered on competition, and The real well-being of people is the core.

At the same time, the declining birth rate is often accompanied by aging, and the public welfare attributes of people's livelihood security projects should also be enhanced to strengthen the construction of social communities.

  The era of negative population growth has begun. How can China find new opportunities for development?

Can potential demographic opportunities be transformed into real demographic dividends, and then support the transformation of economic development mode?

There is a long way to go for a country with a large population.

Data map: real estate under construction.

Photo by Fan Shaopeng

New Housing Guarantee "Live" More Peace of Mind

  Entering a new stage of epidemic prevention and control, the housing problem is still the focus of people's urgency and anxiety.

At present, real estate has been included in the "game of chess" for stabilizing the economy. New policies for the property market have been launched intensively across the country to reduce the cost of buying houses and adjust purchase restriction policies.

How to further promote the reform of the real estate market while stabilizing the economy, adhere to the positioning of "housing to live in, not speculation", and improve the plight of young people who "cannot afford housing"; Reassuring the public to buy and rent houses, related issues need to be resolved urgently.

  "What the people want is what the government wants." At the upcoming National Two Sessions, deputies to the new National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference will gather together to discuss state affairs.

The public expects the conference to focus on the pain points of people's livelihood, put forward insights, and spread the foundation of high-quality development of people's livelihood.

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