The Pudong New Area District has not relaxed the hukou (permanent residency permit) system as a pilot program for a reform of the household registration system in Shanghai.

The district authorities said yesterday there was no basis to a report in Guangzhou-based Time Weekly, which said people with temporary residency permits in Pudong could get a hukou in Shanghai under a new residency plan.

A Pudong human resources department official told China Daily that the municipal government was working on a new residency plan, but it was expected only at the end of this month.

About 6 million people with temporary residency permits work in Shanghai, and the percentage of people without hukou is higher than the national average, earlier government reports said.

Last month, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said at the annual municipal people's congress that the government was drafting a new residency plan that might grant more people permanent residency permits.

"The thirst for talented and highly skilled workers is the primary motivation behind the government's plan to revise the hukou system," said Lu Hanlong, dean of Social Development Research Institute under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Lu Jun came from Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, last year to work for Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. It is high time, he said, the local government scrapped the system that divides the labor force.

"Without a permanent residency permit, people like me, for example, have to face a lot of inconveniences in our visa applications and children's education," Lu said.

"What's more, we feel somewhat inferior under the existing hukou system."

(China Daily February 13, 2009)