Bloomberg:  

I have two questions, actually. My first question is about the labor market. With the changes that have been the focus of the government this year on moving to high-quality growth, there has been a lot of problems in the labor market, including in getting young people jobs. The youth jobless rate has risen to 18% in August. How can the government ensure full employment as construction and other labor-intensive industries decline and are replaced with mostly automated industries, such as high-tech manufacturing? And my second question is following on what has been announced today. You said that you wanted to ensure all the special local government bonds would be sold by the end of October. Does that mean you plan to sell new bonds in November and December when there will be no bonds for sale? Thank you. 

Zheng Shanjie:

Thank you to Bloomberg's journalist for their questions. I'd like to invite Mr. Li to answer the question regarding employment.

Li Chunlin:

Thank you for your questions. Mr. Zheng touched upon the issue of employment in his previous briefing on the package of incremental policies. Ensuring high-quality and full employment is one of the primary objectives that the package of incremental policies aims to achieve through its prioritized "three areas."

This year, a series of policies aimed at promoting economic growth and employment have taken effect, leading to a generally stable employment situation. In the first eight months of this year, the urban surveyed unemployment rate averaged at 5.2%, down 0.1 percentage points year on year. The labor force shifting from low-productivity sectors to high-productivity sectors is a very normal phenomenon. While technological progress is promoting economic transformation and industrial upgrading, it is also fostering new professions and creating new job opportunities. For example, the rapid development of the low-altitude economy has led to the emergence of drone operators as a new profession. Statistics show that China is facing a shortage of 1 million people in this position. Another example is the new energy vehicle maintenance industry. Currently, fewer than 100,000 people are working in this sector. Projections indicate that the talent gap for professionals in maintenance and R&D could reach 1.03 million by 2025, providing ample opportunities for employment.

The Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee held a meeting on Sept. 26, making a series of arrangements to ensure employment. Development, especially high-quality development, is essential for generating new employment opportunities. Going forward, the NDRC will intensify our endeavors to implement the employment-first strategy as well as strengthen macro policies in a coordinated manner. We will help people foster a healthy perspective toward employment and promote employment through economic growth. Based on Mr. Zheng's briefing, I'd like to share four more items of information:

First, we will expand effective demand and foster new growth drivers for employment. We'll give full play to the leading role of the central budget investment and encourage private investment with various measures. Mr. Zheng and Ms. Zheng just now also both mentioned private investment. We'll step up efforts to implement major national strategies, build up security capacity in key areas and implement programs to promote large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer good trade-ins. We'll ensure more support for programs that provide more jobs. For example, although the specific figures for this year haven't been released yet, last year the NDRC allocated 10.9 billion yuan from the central government budget for work relief programs. This investment facilitated as many as 290,000 low-income individuals in rural areas to find jobs locally or near their homes, boosting their per capita income to 10,000 yuan. This initiative played a significant role in creating a substantial job market. As such, a significant number of jobs have been created thanks to major national strategies, building up security capacity in key areas as well as the program to promote large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer good trade-ins. 

Second, we will focus on enhancing job creation capacity for emerging industries. We'll ramp up efforts to develop new quality productive forces that are aligned with local conditions and foster strategic emerging and future-oriented sectors, including next-generation information technology, energy conservation and environmental protection, biotechnology, new materials, and new energy. By doing so, we're aiming to create more technical and professional positions. 

Third, we will create more job opportunities in the life service industry. We'll promote service consumption in an innovative manner and create new demand for consumption. We'll advance the silver economy. Given China's increasingly aging population, it is crucial to fully leverage the employment potential within the social services industry such as elder care, housekeeping, childcare and logistics. Take the housekeeping sector as an example, while China's domestic service industry currently has around 30 million employees, the market actually demands as many as 50 million people, especially high-quality and highly-skilled domestic service workers.

Fourth, we'll give full play to the role of vocational education and skills training with promoting employment. We will leverage various resources to increase investment in infrastructure used for skills training and assist local governments in establishing platforms, such as public training centers and those that bring together industry and education. We will tailor our training programs to meet enterprises' specific employment demands and provide order-based, targeted and project-oriented training to workers, enabling them to use their skills to secure jobs and increase their incomes. That's all for my response. Thank you. 

Zheng Shanjie:

We're also concerned about the employment issue you mentioned. As Mr. Li explained, there are some structural problems in employment: increases and decreases, labor migration, and shortages in some areas. We're taking measures to address these issues. I noticed your question also relates to special-purpose bonds. I'd like to invite Mr. Liu to answer that part.

Liu Sushe:

Regarding the special-purpose bonds question from this reporter, as mentioned in our opening remarks, this year's special-purpose bonds for project construction total 3.12 trillion yuan. By the end of September, 2.83 trillion yuan had been issued, and we're urging local governments to complete the issuance of the remaining 290 billion yuan by the end of this month.

In the next step, our priority is to fully utilize and maximize the effectiveness of special-purpose bonds, ensuring related projects start as soon as possible and deliver tangible benefits. Meanwhile, the NDRC and the Ministry of Finance are developing new measures to improve the management of local government special-purpose bonds. Once introduced, these measures will help special-purpose bonds play an even greater role in boosting investment. That's all I have to add.