Huang Shuxian:
Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, good afternoon. I am glad to brief you about the achievements we have made in civil affairs since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Over the past 70 years, the civil affairs authorities, in line with the central work of the Party and the State across different periods, have been committed to securing and improving the people's livelihood.
After the founding of the PRC, civil affairs organs at various levels made unrelenting efforts to provide disaster relief to rural areas, offered living subsidies to the disabled, the elderly, and orphans in cities, and provided shelters and education for vagrants and beggars. Benefits were granted to family members of revolutionary martyrs and military personnel. Demobilized soldiers were properly settled. Government at the primary level was consolidated. We have exerted great efforts in the publicity of the marriage law, demographic census, mobilization of migrant workers, management of administrative divisions, registration of social organizations, and funeral services management. In other words, civil affairs organs played an important role in healing the trauma of a war-torn country, maintaining social order, consolidating the new government, and promoting socialist reform and development.
Since the reform and opening-up policy was adopted in 1978, especially after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, China has seen historic developments and achievements in civil affairs.
First, social remedies have been institutionalized rather than be dependent on temporary measures. A social relief system based on subsistence allowances has been established, ensuring basic living standards of about 60 million people in difficulties each year.
Second, the scope of elderly care services has gradually expanded from the underprivileged to all elderly people. An elderly care system with Chinese characteristics that is based on families, supported by communities, supplemented by organizations and integrates elderly care and medical services has been formed. There are now 173,300 elderly care organizations and facilities of various kinds with 7.353 million beds for the elderly. A support system for people living in extreme poverty in both urban and rural areas has been fully established.
Third, China's child welfare system has expanded to cover not just orphans but all the de facto orphans, left-behind children and children facing difficulties. More than 14 million children receive social assistance services each year. In addition, 10.06 million disabled people living in poverty and 11.93 million severely disabled people have benefited from two subsidy policies.
Fourth, we have abolished the compulsory sheltering and transfer of vagrants and beggars and resorted to voluntary acceptance and free assistance. Nearly two million people on average receive assistance every year.
Fifth, the system of community-level self-governance has been established as one of China's basic political systems, and has been continually improved. 78.8% of urban communities and 45.7% of rural communities have developed facilities for comprehensive services. The number of professional social workers has exceeded one million, and there are over 120 million registered volunteers.
Sixth, social organizations have seen orderly development. The number of social organizations of various kinds has reached 835,000. Charity work, which used to be voluntary and scattered, has become law-based, better organized and regulated. In 2018, social donations from across China reached 90 billion yuan.
Seventh, the structure of administrative division has been optimized. We have completed a boundary survey and two rounds of national surveys of geographical names.
Eighth, we have continually improved the administration of marriage registration. In recent years, nearly 14 million marriage registration applications were handled on average annually.
Ninth, reform of funerals and cremation administration has been deepened, with the country's cremation rate reaching 50.5%.
Tenth, the CPC's leadership over the civil affairs has been strengthened. In 2018, the Ministry of Civil Affairs was approved to establish three new departments, namely, a department of elderly care services, a department of child welfare , and a department of charity promotion and social work , which has boosted the functions of civil affairs authorities.
In the future, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will fully implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's instructions on civil affairs work and the decisions of the CPC Central Committee to better fulfill our duties.
Xi Yanchun:
Thanks for Mr. Huang Shuxian's introduction. Now I will give the floor to Mr. Zhang Jinan.
