Yahoo News on 26.12.2019 reported the following:
China Vows Freer Movement for Workers by Relaxing ‘Hukou’
System
Bloomberg Bloomberg News,Bloomberg 8 hours ago
Reactions Reblog on Tumblr Share Tweet Email
(Bloomberg) -- China outlined plans late Wednesday to
promote the freer movement of labor as authorities look to cushion slowing
growth in the world’s second-biggest economy.
The policy statement issued by the State Council, China’s
cabinet, included a pledge to relax the country’s household registration
system, which has been criticized as discriminatory and a deterrent to
urbanization. Authorities will also make it easier to move between employers
and improve incentive systems aimed at encouraging workers to go to less
developed regions.
These are the latest in a slew of policy announcements
Beijing has made in the final weeks of 2019 after President Xi Jinping led a
December meeting of top officials to plan out the coming year’s economic
priorities. The readout from that conclave signaled both an aversion to
broad-based stimulus and an emphasis on spurring “new drivers of growth”
through reform.
In addition to labor, the State Council has in the past week
also unveiled steps to improve the efficiency of state-owned enterprises,
stabilize employment, and bolster the role of private-sector businesses in the
economy. Premier Li Keqiang also pledged last week to give foreign investors
greater access to the country’s service sectors including finance and health
care.
Xi, in an article published Dec. 15 in Qiushi magazine, also
touted the importance of so-called city clusters as part of China’s
urbanization strategy. In it, he describe the need for policies that promote
the fair and reasonable movement of the factors of production - capital, land, enterprise
and labor - so that they can aggregate effectively.
China’s household registration system has been cited by a
number of economists as one hurdle to such movement. It ties the ability of
Chinese citizens to access public services to the city where their household is
registered. The difficulty of changing that registration, commonly knows as a
person’s hukou, has left many migrants unable to fully benefit from public
services for education and health.
The steps outlined by the State Council would eliminate the
hukou system in cities with less than 3 million residents and relax it in
cities with populations of 3-5 million. For cities home to more than 5 million,
such as Beijing and Shanghai, the household registration system will be
simplified, it said, without giving details. These steps mirror policies
released by the National Development and Reform Commission in April.
This policy change would effectively eliminate the hukou
hurdle for most of China. Out of almost 300 prefecture-level cities, only 27
have populations exceeding 3 million, according to
I-City Media, which analyzed data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Development.
Markets reacted positively to the news. An index tracking
shares of property developers listed in Shanghai rose by 2.9%, the most since
September 4, while China’s benchmark CSI 300 index gained 0.9% on Thursday.
“It’s
the first time the central government has announced clear-cut detailed hukou
reform,” said Yan Yuejin, lead analyst at E-House China Enterprise Holdings
Ltd.’s research institute. “Loosening hukou may spark home-buying demand in
some tier-3 and tier-4 cities.”
Translation
（彭博社）-中國當局週三晚概述了促進勞動力自由流動的計劃，因為當局希望緩解全球第二大經濟體放緩的增長。
中國國務院(即內閣)發布的政策聲明中包括一項承諾，即放寬中國的戶籍制度，該制度被批評為是對城市化的歧視性和威懾。當局還將使雇主之間的調動更加容易，並改善旨在鼓勵工人前往欠缺發達地區的激勵機制。
這是北京在2019年最後幾週的最新一輪發布的一系列政策公告。此前，習近平主席領導了12月的高級官員會議，以計劃來年的經濟重點。此次秘密會議宣讀的解讀，是它既表明對基礎廣泛的刺激措施的厭惡，也強調通過改革刺激"新的增長動力"。。
除勞動力外，國務院在過去一周還公佈了提高國有企業的效率，穩定就業和加強私營企業在經濟中的作用的步驟。總理李克強上週還承諾，將使外國投資者有更多機會進入該國的服務業，包括金融和醫療保健。
習近平在12月15日發表在《求是》雜誌上的一篇文章中，還吹捧所謂城市群作為中國城市化戰略一部分的重要性。在其中，他描述了對促進公平，合理地移動生產要素（資本，土地，企業和勞動力）的政策的需求，以便它們可以有效地聚集。
許多經濟學家認為中國的戶籍制度是這種移動的障礙之一。它關係到中國公民獲得其戶口所在地城市的公共服務的能力。改變登記的困難（通常被稱為個人戶口）使許多移動人口無法充分受益於教育和衛生方面的公共服務。
國務院概述的步驟將消除人口不足300萬的城市的戶籍制度，並放鬆人口在3-5百萬的城市的戶籍制度。報告說，對於北京和上海等人口超過500萬的城市，戶籍制度將得到簡化，但沒有提供細節。這些步驟反映了國家發改委4月份發布的政策。
這一政策變化將有效消除中國大部分地區的戶籍障礙。根據I-City
Media，分析了住房和城鄉建設部的資料，在近300個縣級市城市中，只有27個人口超過300萬。該城市對住房和城鄉建設部的數據進行了分析。
市場對該消息反應積極。追踪在上海上市的房地產開發商股票的指數上漲了2.9％，是9月4日以來的最高水平，而中國基準的滬深300指數在周四上漲了0.9％。
易居中國企業控股有限公司研究部首席分析師嚴躍進表示：“這是中央政府首次明確進行詳細的戶籍改革。” “戶籍的鬆動可能會激發一些三四線城市的購房需求。”
It is nice to see that China, out of economic needs, is
relaxing some of its control over people’s movement.
沒有留言:
張貼留言