China Review:

Last year, the new profession of veteran affairs officers was officially included in China's reference book for occupational classifications. Can you brief us on that? Thank you.

Ma Feixiong:

The new profession represents an initiative to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on establishing and improving veteran service and support systems. This new profession is specifically designed for those who work to offer service and support for veterans and falls under the management of the MVA. Veteran affairs officers mainly deal with routine work related to the ideological and political work of ex-service personnel, policy consultation and communication, benefits and settlement services, employment and entrepreneurship support, assistance to those in difficulty, reception of public complaints, and protection of rights and interests.

The veteran affairs officer is a totally new position and different from other professions. There are no previous examples for us to choose from or experiences to refer to. Therefore, we organized our best staff and spent over a year to formulate vocational standards, compile training courses, and form the first group of teaching staff. We have also launched pilot schemes in six prefectures and cities in provinces in the eastern, central, and western regions of the country earlier this month.

Promoting this profession helps improve veteran service and support efficiency, steadily increase community-level personnel, and enhance the competence and ethics of service providers to better serve veterans and develop high-quality veteran affairs work.

For the next step, we will prioritize three aspects of our work. First, we will focus on carrying out pilot programs. We will establish procedure-based mechanisms for training, evaluation, and incentives so as to gain successful experience at an early date and promote the mechanisms across the board. Second, we will fulfil our duties and tasks. We will build a large contingent of specialized and professional personnel to serve and support veterans. Third, we will ensure the quality of services. We will provide "one-stop" services that are more accessible, standardized, and caring. Thank you.