"The reform is like a train and social security is like the rails which should be paved wherever the train arrives," said Chen Haibo, a deputy to the ongoing National People's Congress (NPC) and director of the Labor and Social Security Department of Northeast China's Liaoning Province.

By the end of last year, the province had established insurance for the elderly covering 6.69 million workers and 2.8 million retirees, and medical insurance covering 6.17 million people, according to Chen.

Some 1.5 million urban residents in Liaoning also receive a sustenance allowance to ensure a minimum living standard.

The State Council selected Liaoning in 2001 as a pilot region to establish an urban social security network.

Liaoning is one of China's oldest industrial centers and has the most laid-off workers and retirees nationwide. The pilot scheme aims to assist the country's millions of jobless and elderly to facilitate the restructuring of state sectors.

Although subsidies from the central government are still needed, Liaoning has formed stable and multi-layer finance channels for the social security network, Chen said.

The provincial congress has also enacted several local ordinances to supervise the use of social security funds.

"The focus of our job this year is to integrate the sustenance allowance for laid-off workers into the unemployment insurance scheme, which is a more standard form of security," he said.

Premier Zhu Rongji, in his report to the NPC last week, said social security was "of vital importance" to state company reforms and said the trial scheme in Liaoning Province had "marked effects."

(China Daily March 10, 2003)