China to improve employment policy, social security system: minister

Chinese authorities will take steps to improve the employment priority policy and the social security system, so that the people can better enjoy the fruits of reform and development, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping said.

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) emphasized that ensuring and improving people's livelihood in the process of development is a major task of China's modernization. Wang said that this fully reflects the fundamental purpose of the CPC to serve the people wholeheartedly and fully reflects the people-centered reform value orientation.

"Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, deploying a series of major reforms with strong pertinence and high value. In a country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, relatively full employment has been achieved, and the overall employment situation has been kept stable. The intensity of the reforms is unprecedented," Wang said.

The plenary session proposed to improve the employment priority policy and improve the employment public service system. Wang said that promoting high-quality and full employment is the new mission of the government's employment related work in the new era.

"We will make high-quality full employment a priority goal for economic and social development, and promote fiscal, monetary, investment, consumption, industrial, and regional policies to coordinate with employment policies. We will focus on resolving structural employment problems, improve the evaluation and incentive system for the training and use of skilled personnel, gradually improve the treatment level of skilled personnel, and improve employment support policies for key groups. We will continue to build a comprehensive public employment service system that covers the entire population, runs through the entire process, radiates the entire region, and highlights convenience and efficiency. At the same time, we will also improve the labor rights and interest protection system that adapts to flexible employment and new employment forms, so as to create a fair employment environment," she said.

Wang said that the reform of the social security system will be further deepened, and the high-quality and sustainable development of the social security system will be promoted.

"We will promote the national coordination of basic pension insurance for enterprise employees. We will actively develop the second and third pillar pension insurance, comprehensively promote the individual pension system, and improve the pension insurance system for urban and rural residents. We will improve the social security system for flexible employment personnel, migrant workers, and personnel in new employment forms, and expand the pilot program for occupational injury protection for personnel in new employment forms. We will improve the social security relationship transfer and continuation system. We will also promote a new model of 'one-card' livelihood management services based on the social security card," Wang said.

China to improve employment policy, social security system: minister

China’s first intelligent field plant phenotype precision identification platform went into operation recently in Sanya City, south China’s Hainan Province, which is a milestone in the country’s development of intelligent breeding.

The phenotype of a plant is a term used to describe observable characteristics of the plant, such as its appearance, and some inherent physiological characteristics, such as resistance to drought and diseases.

In an experimental field of the National Nanfan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a large piece of equipment is moving across the field. The equipment, called the field plant phenotype precision identification platform, can move according to the preset track and can be remotely controlled. While moving, the equipment can scan the plants with its six sensors, just like a CT machine for plants.

"The ultimate goal is to achieve high-throughput, large-scale, efficient and precise collection of germplasm resources, which can be four to five times higher than the efficiency of the traditional manual collection," said Jin Xiuliang, a researcher at the institute.

Although the equipment looks simple from the outside, it contains six high-precision image acquisition devices such as multi-spectral, thermal infrared, and chlorophyll fluorescence devices. Data can be collected at fixed times and points according to experimental needs, and the collection of a germplasm material can be completed within 30 seconds.

After the data collected through this platform is transmitted to the data analysis center, researchers can more quickly and accurately screen out germplasm resources with excellent traits, laying the foundation for subsequent crop breeding.

"The plant phenotype identification facility at the National Nanfan Research Institute is a milestone in the field of crop science in China. It can greatly enhance the independent innovation capabilities of germplasm innovation, gene mining, and variety breeding, and enhance the international competitiveness of China's seed industry," said Li Huihui, vice president of the institute.  

China makes major progress in smart crop breeding