Address by H.E. Mr. Huang Ju, Vice Premier of China at the Opening Ceremony of the 28th ISSA General Assembly

12 September 2004

Your Excellency Mr. Joha n Verstraeten, President of the ISSA,
Your Excellency Mr. Dann Kunda Musenge, Vice President of the ISSA,
Your Excellency Mr. Dalmer D. Hoskins, Secretary General of the ISSA,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

 Good afternoon!

   It gives me tremendous pleasure to attend the 28th General Assembly of the International Social Security Association (ISSA). To begin with, let me extend, on behalf of the Chinese Government and in my own name, the warmest congratulations on the convocation of the Assembly in Beijing and a most sincere welcome to the distinguished guests and all delegates.

   It is the shared aspiration and common mission of all governments and peoples to safeguard world peace, promote all-round development and social justice. The theme of this Assembly “Social Security: Securing Social Justice” is highly significant as it is going to discuss in depth the worldwide trends of social security movements and seeks to further promote social justice, equality and harmony. We are confident that, through its extensive exchanges and deep-going debates among policy-makers and administrators of social security as well as relevant experts and scholars from different countries and regions, this Assembly will play a positive role in urging governments to pay greater attention to the livelihood and wellbeing of their peoples and facilitating the long-term social security development in the world.
 
   Social security is a product of the production forces when they advanced to a certain level. It is one of the important indicators of social progress and civilization. With more than 100 years development, social security has assumed increasing importance in all countries, both economically and socially, and has become an important and indispensable pillar of the market economy. It serves as a social “stabilizer”, an economic “shock absorber” and an “adjustor” for social justice. It should keep improving and reforming itself in response to the changing times and conditions of different countries. The recent two decades have seen a new wave of social security reform sweeping across the spectrum, from developed countries to developing ones, as an important trend in the world nowadays.

   China is an ancient country with time-honoured civilization. Such ideas as helping each other and supporting the weak and poor began to emerge a long time ago. As early as in about 6th century BC, China’s Confucians described an ideal society of great harmony, where people “treat one another as their own families and ensure the old are supported, the strong employed, the young fostered and the widowed, childless and disabled taken good care of”. However, such an ideal was impossible to materialize, either in a feudal China, which persisted for thousands of years, or in a semi-feudal-semi-colonial China, which existed for 100 years.  It was not until the founding of the People’s Republic of China did social security start to be institutionalized in this country.

   China began its reform and opening-up programme in late 1970s, which greatly liberated and developed the social production forces. Since then, China has witnessed huge changes. In the past 25 years, China’s GDP has been growing by 9.4% on average annually and its per capita GDP amounted to 1000 USD last year. The Chinese people have achieved a life of general prosperity.

   The remarkable increase in economic development level has promoted the reform and development of the social security system. In 1993, China set the goal of building a socialist market economy and clarified the task missions of social security programmes. In the subsequent over-ten-year-long reform, we have employed the basic system of combining social pooling with individual accounts and institutionalized the multi-layer framework for social security.  We have expanded the coverage of social security and extended the protection from employees in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to those working in entities with other ownership structures. With the adoption of individual contribution, the increase of government fiscal input and establishment of national social security funds, a multi-source financing scheme has been preliminarily set up, covering the state, the employer and individuals. The “two guarantees” and “three security lines” policies have, rather effectively, ensured the basic needs of the laid-off workers, retirees from enterprises and those under programmes for minimum living insurance. Socialized management of social security affairs is adopted, which helps to ease the burdens of the enterprises. Experimental efforts have also been made to improve the social security programmes and explore new approaches to rural social insurance schemes. So far, a social security system that is independent from enterprises and with multiple funding channels, regulated institutions and socialized management and service is now taking shape in China, which is not only an effective support for the country’s reform, development and restructuring but also a guarantee for social stability.

   The first two decades of this century are an important strategic period of opportunities for China to speed up its socialist modernization. The Chinese Government has identified the grand goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way and made arrangement to improve the social security system at a faster speed.  By drawing both China’s experience and that of other countries, we will pay more attention to well addressing the following six important relations so as to achieve the healthy development of the social security and enable it a greater role in promoting reform and development as well as maintaining social stability.

 First, the relation between social security and economic development.  Economic development is the prerequisite for social progress and the basis for social security advancement at all times. The establishment of a sound social security system with an increasing benefit level can only be achieved through economic growth. Attention should be paid to well-balanced development and continue to strengthen social security while accelerating economic development. China is a developing country with low economic level. The development of the social security should base on the Chinese reality and suit to its economic development level rather than follow the path of the “welfare states”. The State establishes and organizes the implementation of the basic social security system, which should secure the basic living of the residents on the one hand, and not to go beyond the economic capacity of the country on the other hand.

   Second, the relation between social security and employment.  A big population and abundant labour resources feature one of the basic national conditions of China, which requires us to focus the work of the government on job creation, implement active employment policies, guide people to earn a living through employment, and ensure and improve the living standards of every family. In this context, employment is the source for livelihood and the most powerful means of security. The State should provide assistance to those without working capabilities and those who are temporarily jobless. Therefore, we must always keep in our mind both the employment issues and the institutional building of social security, put in place a mechanism conducive to our citizens’ active participation in wealth creation and encourage people to seek for jobs.

   Third, the relation between the current and the long-term demands. In recent years, we have been concentrating our efforts on resolving two practical issues affecting China’s development and social stability through the policies of “two guarantees” and “three security lines”: the first issue is about guaranteeing the basic living and reemployment of over 20 million SOEs laid-off workers; the other is the timely and full payment of basic pensions to over 30 million retirees from enterprises. However, it is not enough for social security to only address the most immediate problems. To ensure sustained development and stability and to address the contradictions and problems that population aging, rural urbanization and diversification in economic ownership and employment forms, China is making studies to set up a long-term mechanism to ensure sustainable development. We are now implementing a pilot reform programme to obtain experience which may be duplicated in larger scales. The pilot reform is a work of long-term and strategic significance.

   Fourth, the relation between government and market.  In the institutional building of social security, the government must play a leading role, work vigorously to promote the relevant legislation, increase input and provide comprehensive and convenient public services.  Meanwhile, the market must also be allowed to have its own place.  A rational division of labour must be achieved between the government and the market forces. All that can be done well by market forces should be left to the market. In addition, efforts must be made to give play to the role of social organizations and various social members so as to form a responsibility-sharing mechanism and set up a multi-layer social security system.

   Fifth, the relation between policy-making and management improvement. The ultimate goal of social security is to provide social benefits to targeted groups of people at specified time and place in accordance with relevant stipulation. After the identification of the right model, the reasonable system structure and practical policy measures, it is then essential to formulate strict regulations and procedures of management, follow the principle of putting people first, upgrade managerial methods, strengthen the capacity-building of institutions and agencies running social security affairs and constantly improve both the management and quality of service so as to let social security policies bring tangible benefits to people.

   Sixth, the relation between national reality and international experience. Social security has a history of over 100 years up to now.  A lot of experience has been gained in many countries.  It is essential for different countries to share experience and learn from each other.  However, given their different stages of economic development, divergent cultural and historical backgrounds and varying length of social security history, countries also differ in social security coverage, benefit levels and methods of protection provision, which is not only normal but also natural. A country should build and improve its social security system in the light of its actual situation. China is a late-comer in providing social security.  We will further step up exchanges and cooperation with other countries in the world, learn and assimilate all useful experience and advance China’s social security system.

   Ladies and Gentlemen,

   The ISSA is the biggest and most representative international organization for social security in the world. With a history of over 70 years, it has made significant contributions to the world-wide development of social security. The Chinese Government highly value the important role of the ISSA in the world social security endeavour and stands ready to enhance cooperation with this organization in all related areas in a bid to moving forward social security in the world together. China also hopes that both the ISSA and its member agencies will continue to give attention and support to China’s efforts to improve its own social security system.

   Ladies and Gentlemen,

   Let us join hands and redouble efforts to make social security accessible to more people, to achieve social equality and justice, to promote world peace and development and to create a happy and bright future for the entire humanity.

   I wish all our friends a pleasant stay in China and the 28th General Assembly of the ISSA a complete success!

   Thank you.