At the on-gong annual session of the Chinese legislature, Minister Zeng Peiyan in charge of the State Development Planning Commission said the government will strive to create more than 8 million jobs this year for the country's growing army of jobless.

Yu Faming, director of the labor ministry's department of training and employment, said the target is attainable, adding that he based his conviction on the sustained rapid growth of the national economy over the past few years, which has laid a solid foundation for creating news jobs.

The official quoted experts as saying that under China's present conditions, the GDP growth targeted for this year alone could provide 5-5.6 million jobs.

The service industry and the private sector, which are expected to grow faster this year than in the past, will also provide a great number of jobs, especially for laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises.

With the improvement in the people's living standards, community service has become the most promising sector to absorb surplus labor, Yu said.

The central authorities pay great attention to the work of labor and social security, and related government departments and all localities throughout the country have formulated a series of policies to encourage laid-off workers to find new jobs since a national work meeting on reemployment was held in September last year.

A recent research paper by Yu's ministry indicates that these incentive policies will create 13 million jobs in three years. The year 2003 is the first year to implement these policies. Yu believes that they will contribute to the good environment for laid-off workers to find new jobs.

(People's Daily March 8, 2003)