Education World

Archive for May, 2010

China said here Tuesday that the United Nations should continue to lead in solving the financing difficulty of the international development process.

Speaking at the UN high-level dialogue on financing for development, Li Baodong, permanent representative of Chinese Mission to the UN, said as the most representative and authoritative international organization, the UN should “continue to play a leadership role in financing for development, and facilitate the establishment of extensive partnerships among governments and all sectors of the society to ensure the coordination and coherence of the relevant international policies. ”

“The world economy is now moving slowly out of deep decline, and has embarked on a more obvious upward trajectory,” Li said. ” Developing countries, hit hardest by this financial crisis, are faced with shortage of resources, degradation of development environment and other difficulties.”

He proposed that countries should galvanize political will, mobilize international resources and push for implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration on Financing for Development.

Besides, the international society should strengthen coordination of macro-economic policies, accommodate the interests of various parties, and promote balanced growth of the world economy.

Efforts should also be made on promoting further opening of the market, said Li, urging firmly opposition against trade protectionism, to improve global governance and effectively increase the representation and voice of developing countries.

China attaches great importance to development, Li said. “We have laid out a development strategy that is suited to our national conditions, and compatible with the MDGs and other international developments goals,” he said.

China has achieved ahead of schedule the goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, providing universal primary education, lowering children mortality rate, and preventing and curing malaria, he added.

He stressed that China’s assistance to other countries will not be compromised by the impact of the financial crisis, adding that China will continue to do what it can to help other developing countries within the framework of South-South cooperation.

“China will continue to be actively engaged in the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, and make contribution to international cooperation for development,” Li said.

China and Cameroon said on Tuesday that they would make joint efforts to step up their parliamentary ties.

The pledge came out of the hour-long talks between China’s top political advisor Jia Qinglin and President of National Assembly of Cameroon Cavaye Djibril.

Jia, the chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top advisory body, is on a three-day official visit to the central African nation.

This is the first visit to the African continent by a senior Chinese leader this year.

Jia said that exchange and cooperation between the CPPCC and National Assembly of Cameroon would help boost people-to-people relationship and state-to-state relationship.

“The CPPCC would like to increase personnel exchanges with the National Assembly of Cameroon and discuss how to run the state and promote livelihood,” Jia said.

Djibril said the National Assembly of Cameroon stands ready to work more closely with the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, and the CPPCC.

On the broader China-Cameroon relationship, Jia said the two countries have withstood the test of time and vicissitudes in the international arena since they established the diplomatic ties in 1971.

“The two countries have reaped new harvests in recent years,” Jia said, referring to bilateral cooperation in trade and economy, science and technology, education, among others.

China appreciated Cameroon’s adherence to the one-China policy and support to the most populous country on issues concerning China’s core interests, Jia said.

Jia reaffirmed that China would work with Cameroon and other African countries to implement eight new measures announced last year by Premier Wen Jiabao, including debt cancellation, agriculture production, infrastructure, education.

As China and Cameroon will mark the 40th anniversary of the diplomatic ties, Jia called on the both sides to take the opportunity to boost exchanges at all levels and hold celebrations to uplift the relationship.

Echoing Jia’s proposal, Djibril said his country would like to cooperate with China to advance relationship and generate benefit for their peoples.

Following the talks, Jia also delivered a key-note speech on China-African relationship.

Jia will meet with President of Cameroon Paul Biya on Wednesday.

Cameroon is the first leg of Jia’s ten-day African tour which will also take him to Namibia and South Africa.

The White House says it isn’t worried that 13 state attorneys general are suing to overturn the massive health care overhaul, and many legal experts agree the effort is futile.

But the lawsuit, filed in federal court seven minutes after President Barack Obama signed the 10-year, $938 billion health care bill, underscores the divisiveness of the issue and the political rancor that has surrounded it.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum led the effort to file the suit that claims Congress doesn’t have the constitutional right to force people to get health coverage. It also says the federal government is violating the Constitution by forcing a mandate on the states without providing resources to pay for it.

“To that I say, ‘Bring it on,’” said White House domestic policy chief Melody Barnes, who cited similar suits filed over Social Security and the Voting Rights Act when those were passed. “If you want to look in the face of a parent whose child now has health care insurance and say we’re repealing that … go right ahead.”

McCollum, a Republican running for governor, has been talking about suing to overturn the bill since December. This month he invited other attorneys general to join him. So far South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Colorado and Louisiana have agreed.

All the attorneys general are Republican except James “Buddy” Caldwell of Louisiana, a Democrat, who said he signed on because Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal asked him to and he felt the effort had merit.

The lawsuit, filed in Pensacola, asks a judge to declare the bill unconstitutional because “the Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage.”

Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said the effort isn’t going anywhere.

“This is pure, pure political posturing and they have to know it,” he said.

But South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley disputed that characterization, saying his state will have to cut education and other programs to make up for increased Medicaid costs under the overhaul.

“This isn’t about attorneys general trying to break into the realm of telling what needs to happen with health care reform,” he said. “This is attorneys general saying you went too far with unfunded federal mandates. You exceeded your power under the Constitution.”

Not so, said Bruce Jacob, a constitutional law professor at Stetson University in Florida, who said the suit seems like a political ploy and is unlikely to succeed.

“The federal government certainly can compel people to pay taxes, can compel people to join the Army,” he said.

Some states are considering separate lawsuits — Virginia filed its own Tuesday — and others, including Missouri, may join the multistate suit. Still others are looking at other ways to avoid participating, like passing legislation to block requirements in the bill.

McCollum predicted his suit would eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The health care bill “is not lawful,” he said. “It may have passed Congress, but there are three branches of government.”

The lawsuit claims the health care bill violates the 10th Amendment, which says the federal government has no authority beyond the powers granted to it under the Constitution, by forcing the states to carry out its provisions but not reimbursing them for the costs.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, said she strongly disagrees with Attorney General Rob McKenna’s decision to sue, calling the lawsuit an effort to “gut the bill.”

“There is no reason why we need to spend taxpayer money in the state of Washington to join this suit, when it’s going to be litigated no matter what,” she said.

The lawsuit also says the states can’t afford the new law. Using Florida as an example, it says the overhaul will add almost 1.3 million people to the state’s Medicaid rolls and cost the state an additional $150 million in 2014, growing to $1 billion a year by 2019.

“We simply cannot afford to do the things in this bill that we’re mandated to do,” McCollum said at a press conference after filing the suit. He said the Medicaid expansion in Florida will cost $1.6 billion, including administrative and other costs.

Under the bill, starting in six months, health insurance companies would be required to keep young adults as beneficiaries on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, and companies would no longer be allowed to deny coverage to sick children.

Other changes would not kick in until 2014.

That’s when most Americans will for the first time be required to carry health insurance — either through an employer or government program or by buying it themselves. Those who refuse will face tax penalties.

No Republicans in the U.S. House or Senate voted for the bill, which Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller in Washington said his agency will vigorously defend.

“We are confident that this statute is constitutional and we will prevail when we defend it,” he said.

Massive strikes on Tuesday not only caused service suspensions in France’s highway and metro systems, the labor strife also dealt another blow to the just-reshuffled government that sustained a blow in regional elections.

France’s national transport network bore the brunt of service suspensions as regional railways and metros suspended some of their services until Wednesday morning.

State railway operator SNCF said 28.3 percent of its workers were striking across the country until 11:00.

On its website, SNCF recommended all travelers to confirm their trip before leaving due to unreliable schedules affected by the strike.

Public traffic like buses and trams did not issue any strike announcement, but local reports confirmed that in several major cities demonstrations were affecting ground traffic to varying extents.

The French post system said 11.45 percent of its staff had stopped working on Tuesday morning.

According to data from the education ministry, an average of 21.7 percent of teachers in secondary schools went on strike, however, the SNUipp-FSU, teachers’ union of French primary schools, said that 52 percent of its teachers were on strike in the morning.

The country’s powerful labor union CGT called for a day of protest over wages and pensions throughout France, reflecting another setback for the ruling party after regional elections in which the conservative endured a loss of 21 regions in the mainland.

France is administratively divided into 26 regions, of which 22 are on the mainland while four are overseas.

Since a majority of voters had expressed hope for a reformed government, President Nicolas Sarkozy swiftly announced an adjustment to the lineup of ministers late Monday. He ousted former Labor Minister Xavier Darcos and changed two other ministers.

Before you say ”I do” to a business partnership with your spouse, consider the pros and cons of this working relationship.

Given the slow rate of new job creation, an increasing number of Americans are jumping on the entrepreneur bandwagon, and many of them are forming partnerships with their spouse or significant other. And while every “copreneur” situation is unique, there are some common threads among couples that make it work.

First, it’s important that the husband and wife have complementary skill sets. “I am more visionary, creative and future-thinking and my husband is more pragmatic, so we have different strengths,” says Jane Wurwand, who owns Dermalogica, a Los Angeles-based skin care company with her husband, Raymond. When they started the company in 1984, Jane wanted to be able to talk directly to their network of licensed skin therapists. Raymond acted on the idea by starting their bi-annual “Congress,” which now draws over 2,000 salon owners and employees together for three days of education, sharing ideas and bonding.

Dr. Irwin and Lucia Smigel have been working as a husband-and-wife business team for nearly 45 years. “We enjoy being together, so we do everything together,” Lucia says. But Dr. Smigel is quick to point out that they have different strengths. He’s a dentist and inventor–he created a line of teeth whitening products called Supersmile–and Lucia’s business savvy complemented his innovative product development skills.

While different skill sets can be an asset to the business, it’s important to be in sync on core business values. “Raymond and I have similar qualities in our approach to business, our views on business ethics and customer service,” Wurwand says. “Whenever we got a customer complaint in the early days, we made it a point to call the customer personally and resolve the issue–not hide behind someone else or some policy or clause.”

Another key factor in successful husband-and-wife working relationships is having clearly delineated roles and responsibilities at work and at home. “My husband loves the business side of things while my strength is in branding,” says Kaira Rouda of Real Living, Inc., a Columbus, Ohio-based real estate franchisor. “So I don’t feel stepped on if he doesn’t include me in a financial meeting.” Kaira entered the business with her husband, Harley, at a time when her expertise was needed to re-brand the company. Within just a few years, their company grew into the fifth largest privately held real estate company in the country. “Working together as a team has greatly benefited the business,” she says. “When we are in sync, we are unstoppable.”

For some couples, the responsibilities get divided at home as well. Just as Kara and Theo Goldin of San Francisco-based Hint Essence Water were about to launch their new product, Kara discovered she was pregnant with their fourth child. “We understand that we also have responsibilities for the kids,” she says. “We divide up based on our skill sets.” For example, Kara spends more time teaching their children how to handle social situations and how to understand other people’s needs, while Theo helps them with their school work.

Family should be high on the list of considerations,” says Kathryn Stafford, Ph.D., an associate professor at Ohio State University who teaches a class on family business owners. “Couples might be tempted to think that this is a solution to the difficulty of balancing work and family, when, in fact, it may be quite the opposite.”

Another important element to a successful working partnership is having clear lines of communication. Wurwand says that she and her husband have “fierce conversations” when they disagree, but they ultimately come to an agreement. “You have to state your opinion and win the other one over,” she says. “But we never pull our personal stuff in, and we have never come home not speaking to each other. It usually just ends up in a compromise.”

“Copreneurs need to have a conflict management protocol,” advises Jane Hilburt-David, president of Key Resources, Inc., in Cambridge, Mass. “Each person needs to have a job description with responsibilities and a title, and they need to create healthy boundaries.” She also believes that individuals need to plan time for themselves, time as a couple and time for their jobs.

Finally, couples who share a business need to outwardly support each other. “The most powerful way to demonstrate that support is when you acknowledge each other in front of your team,” Rouda says. She admits that in the early days of their working relationship, her husband hesitated to defend her or her points because he was afraid it would show favoritism. “But that doesn’t work,” she says. “Instead, always present a unified front when talking to your team.”

Stafford agrees: “You need to be recognized as competent at your job and appreciated for it–especially by your spouse.”

The biggest health care overhaul in nearly half a century is about to become reality.

The House of Representatives passed health care reform legislation Sunday night by a vote of 219-212, effectively ending a year’s worth of political horse trading and lobbying. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his certain approval. After the vote, House Democrats broke out into a chorus of “Yes we can, yes we can,” the signature slogan of Obama’s presidential campaign. But the real workings of reform are only now beginning as industry stakeholders, the public and the courts prepare to deal with the fine print of how the legislation will be implemented.

The overhaul gives an additional 32 million Americans access to basic health insurance by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The biggest change in the American health system since Medicare was enacted in 1965, the reforms are expected to cost $938 billion during the next decade. It is going to be paid for by cuts in Medicare, new taxes on investment income and fees on various industry participants–which certainly will be passed along to the general public. But while government subsidies for people who cannot afford insurance and insurance exchanges to help people get insurance won’t be operational before 2014, the increased costs will begin next year.

Big changes are coming for small business. Companies with more than 200 workers will be required to automatically enroll their employees in whatever insurance plan they offer. Companies with at least 50 workers are subject to fines if their workers end up receiving government subsidized coverage. The bill also contains tax breaks for small firms that provide employees with health insurance.

The legislation may be going to Obama for signing, but the action isn’t over in Congress. Following the passage of the bill, the House passed a so-called “reconciliation bill” to make adjustments to the Senate-defined package. However, the Senate has yet to take up the reconciliation bill. Senate Democrats have assured their counterparts in the House that they have enough votes to pass the reconciliation bill next week. It will only need a simple majority vote. The president would then sign the alterations into law. Assuming the reconciliation process is completed, here’s a look at which groups are the biggest winners and losers in health reform:

WINNERS

The Uninsured

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 94% of all non-elderly Americans will have access to health insurance by 2016, vs. 83% now. Health insurers won’t be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. People who elect not to get insurance will have to pay a penalty of $695 per year or 2.5% of income (phased in before 2016). But state-based exchanges will be set up to make shopping for an insurance plan easier. Generous subsidies will be available to families that make up to $88,000 in household income.

Private Insurers

America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group for private insurers, has complained that health care reform leaves 23 million Americans uninsured, imposes drastic cuts in Medicare Advantage and levies a $70 billion tax hike (over 10 years) on the industry. While HMOs whine a lot, they actually came out OK. Their biggest nightmare was long ago removed from the legislation: a government-run plan to compete with private companies. Better yet, health insurers get 32 million new taxpayer-subsidized customers. In essence, it’s a big Cash for Clunkers program for HMOs.

Among the HMOs, the biggest winners are Cigna, Aetna and UnitedHealthcare because they are concentrated in big employer markets that will be largely unaffected by the bill. The bill is more likely to have a negative impact on WellPoint and Humana. WellPoint could lose shelf space in the individual market it now dominates in many states. Humana has a big Medicare Advantage business and will get hammered by the reimbursement cuts.

Drug and Biotech Companies

Drug companies like Merck, Pfizer and Amgen are among the biggest industry winners in the legislation. They suddenly will have tens of millions more insured customers who can afford their expensive medicines. The pharmaceutical industry’s trade group was a big supporter of the legislation, and any threats to the industry were stripped out early or never included. There’s no real plan for comparing treatments to one another, one approach that could lower costs, or for giving the government power to bargain for lower prices. The bill also gives drug makers extra layers of monopoly protection for protein-based biotech drugs, one of the industry’s hottest areas.

In recent years drug makers have switched from selling mass-market pills to high-priced specialty medicines for cancer and nasty diseases. New drugs for rare diseases frequently cost $100,000 or more. In these markets, the key is not avoiding pricing pressure from HMOs, but making sure as many people as possible are covered under some kind of health plan. The legislation means that many more people will be able to pay full freight.

Seniors Who Need Prescription Drugs

The bill closes the “donut hole” in Medicare Part D plans. AARP made sure this was in the bill. Additionally, for adults who aren’t quite 65, new regulations will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of age.

Trial Lawyers/Litigious Patients

The bill has nothing in it that might lead to medical tort reform. By some estimates, billions of dollars in unnecessary lab tests and imaging studies are done every year by doctors who fear lawsuits. Moreover, expected challenges to health care reform, such as efforts in Virginia and Idaho to prevent the U.S. government from forcing citizens to obtain health insurance, could be a boon for lawyers.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Minsk will inject new impetus into the friendly and cooperative relations between China and Belarus.

Since the diplomatic ties between China and Belarus were established 18 years ago, the two sides have maintained close contact, paying due attention to each other’s core interests and supporting each other on major international issues.

Xi’s trip to Minsk will bring fresh momentum to the development of the two countries’ relations, Anatoly Tozik, Belarussian Ambassador to China, told reporters ahead of Xi’s visit.

Vice President Xi will meet President Alexander Lukashenko as well as other Belarussian government and parliament leaders. They will exchange opinions over political cooperation, trade, economy and mutually-beneficial investment to tackle the global economic downturn, Tozik said.

Seeking to promote bilateral cooperation, the two countries will also sign a series of documents, said the ambassador.

In December 2005, Lukashenko visited China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. During that visit, the two leaders issued a joint statement, pledging to promote the China-Belarus relations and enhance cooperation in various areas.

The joint statement, Tozik said, made it clear that bilateral relations had entered a phase of all-round development and strategic cooperation.

Tozik said Belarus believed China would always be a true friend and a partner, adding that bilateral cooperation would benefit the people of both countries.

Trade and economic relations have also benefited from a sound political bilateral relationship.

At present, China is Belarus’ biggest trading partner in Asia. Bilateral trade has surged 12-fold since 1992, with the trade volume standing at 810 million U.S. dollars in 2009, according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

China’s Deputy Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng called on the Chinese and Belarus governments on the eve of Xi’s visit to enhance cooperation in fields such as energy, telecommunications and infrastructure, and to support local banks in providing better financial services for companies of both sides.

Bilateral cooperation in science, education and culture has also been fruitful.

About 2,000 Chinese students are now studying in Belarus. Many Belarussian universities and high schools have begun to offer Chinese language courses, said Tozik.

Xi’s late-March Belarus visit is the second leg of his four-nation Europe tour, which also includes Russia, Finland and Sweden.

Air pollution in Hong Kong has hit a record “severe” level as the sandstorm in northern China moves southward, local environmental authority said on Monday.

Hong Kong Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau said the government has activated its response mechanism and informed concerned departments of the situation. The Education Bureau has advised schools to cancel outdoor sports activities.

Noting the poor air quality may cause health problems, Yau reminded people to monitor their health and help others who need assistance.

“People can help in alleviating the situation by using public transport, switching off idling car engines, and reducing smoking. We will also contact power companies to see if they can use cleaner fuel for electricity generation to minimize local pollution.

“We will closely monitor the change in weather conditions and air quality, and will provide the public with the most updated information.”

Hong Kong Observatory Assistant Director Hilda Lam said the situation may improve as the easterly airstream which is affecting Hong Kong will weaken in the coming two days.

The Education Bureau will decide whether schools should suspend classes after assessing the overall situation and considering departmental advice.

According to the Environmental Protection Department, when the air pollution index exceeds 100, people who are sensitive to air pollution will be affected. People with such illnesses should reduce physical exertion and outdoor activities, especially in areas with serious air pollution.

When the index exceeds 200, people with heart or respiratory illnesses can experience significant aggravation of their symptoms. There will also be widespread symptoms in the healthy population, including eye irritation, coughing and a sore throat. People should reduce physical exertion and outdoor activities, and see a doctor if they feel unwell.

France’s regional election ended Sunday night, with initial results showing the ruling UMP party has lost all but one of 22 regions to the left wing in metropolitan France.

The result was widely considered a loud alarm of public rejection of the current central administration.

The Socialist-led left-wing hailed the victory “unprecedented,” but it is still hard to tell to what extent the left unity can use the strong local base to bring out a credible candidate to challenge the ruling right in the 2012 presidential vote.

DEFEAT — REFLECTION OF PUBLIC DISAPPOINTMENT

During the last poll before the presidential election, left-wing parties have won 54.3 percent of the vote, against 36.1 percent for the ruling UMP party and 8.7 percent for the far-right National Front, according to OpinionWay polling institute.

The Greens party, known as Europe Ecologie, garnered 12.18 percent of votes in the first round, taking a third place only after the leading Socialist and ruling UMP.

As the emerging political power promoted by last year’s European election, the Greens has agreed to ally with the Socialist in the second round.

Public disappointment with the ruling party was understandable as the country’s unemployment rate hit 10 percent, the highest in a decade, and the public deficit was expected to reach 8.2 percent of GDP in 2010.

As Stephane Rozes, a political analyst, told France 24 TV Station in a recent interview that the current economic difficulties challenging the ruling party played into the hands of the left wing, which was considered better at addressing local needs.

REFORM OR NO REFORM, QUESTIONS FOR SARKOZY

Ambitious on pushing forward national reforms on retirement, education and carbon tax, President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing increasing obstacles and declining approval rate.

Weeks before the election, he announced a pause in his reform plan in 2011. Days before the election, he ruled out a large-scale cabinet reshuffle.

However, as the runoff went on, it is hard for the ruling party to ignore the historical low turnout rate and great power of the opposition.

As French powerful labor union CGT called for a day of protest over wages and pensions on Tuesday and the Socialist-led left was determined to defeat the UMP, Sarkozy has to win back some public trust as soon as possible.

President’s General Secretary Claude Gueant said that Sarkozy would make some “minor technical readjustment” to the cabinet, and the Elysee Palace said that Prime Minister Fracois Fillon was summoned by the president to assess the election results on Monday morning.

If the Elysee really lives up to its promise of “listening to the voice of the French public,” a major cabinet reshuffle would be inevitable, as a recent survey showed that 57 percent of French people demanded cabinet reshuffle and 37 percent even asked for a new prime minister.

STILL LONG WAY TO GO FOR THE LEFT WING

In terms of party alliance, the left wing has gained enormous strength, but it still needs time to come up with a prominent candidate to challenge Sarkozy.

The Socialist, the leading force of left wing, is regarded as a chronically divided party. The emerging Greens has showed ambition to play a greater role in regional affairs though it has joined forces with the Socialist.

During Sarkozy’s remaining term of office, the left unity is facing a test of how to coordinate with each other to speak in one voice.

As Stephane Rozes said, France has been governed by right-wing presidents ever since 1995. French people have somehow got used to the division of power — right-wing ruling the central government and left-wing controlling the regional authorities.

Observers say that the regional election is not the end, but more like a beginning of the competition between the ruling right and opposition left for the 2012 presidential election.

A large number of experts say the household registration system should be scrapped because it is discriminatory toward rural residents, especially migrant workers. But what after that? Two academics share their views.

Paul Kong: Scrapping hukou is easier said than done

Although Chinese society agrees that the hukou (household registration) system should be reformed, the process is still stuck in a systemic quagmire for want of a practicable scheme.

If the hukou system is abolished without having an alternative plan in place it would create new, more complicated problems. Or, a similar rigid population management mechanism would replace the old one, trussing up the rational movement of rural migrants in cities.

It is not an easy task to grant 1.3 billion people equal access to urban facilities, let alone providing them with the standard needs that citizens of advanced cities get. In fact, the country’s limited resources and huge population makes that a very difficult proposition.

According to a rough estimate, the government would need to spend an additional 1.65 trillion yuan every year to ensure all citizens enjoy standard social security. The break-up follows:

Medicare: There are differences between the Urban Resident Medicare Security and the New Rural Cooperative Medicare Scheme. The lack of healthcare funds makes it impossible for the government to ensure urban and rural residents have equal access to medical facilities. Take 2009 for example. The overall national medical care security fund was about 350 billion yuan, while 2.5 trillion to 3 trillion yuan was needed to pay for the entire population’s medical expenses. And to narrow the gap, the government provided an additional funding of about 250 billion yuan, which just met the basic medical needs.

Pensions: The pension systems for urban and rural areas are different as well. Urban residents may get a monthly pension of 500 yuan per head on average in the future. But the 100 million needy senior rural residents’ pensions are embarrassingly low. If every senior rural resident is to get a pension of 500 yuan a month, half of which is expected to be paid by the government, another 300 billion yuan would be needed every year.

There is another problem: Most of the senior citizens in rural areas cannot afford to pay the other half of their pension contribution. It is almost impossible for rural residents to set aside 3,000 yuan a year as their pension contribution when their average annual income is only 5,153 yuan (going by last year’s figures).

Subsistence allowance: Urban residents’ personal subsistence allowance is about 300 yuan a month, which is more than half of the average monthly income in rural areas. That means the government has to contribute another 400 billion yuan to equalize rural and urban residents’ subsistence allowances.

Education: There is a wide gap in education resources between urban and rural areas. The government has to increase its expenditure on education by a huge margin to meet the needs of rural immigrants’ children. Vocational training is basically free for urban residents now. But the government has to spend another 700 billion yuan to train new rural immigrants – that is, if the annual per capita education cost remains at 10,000 yuan (according to current figures).

The additional annual spending on the four heads would be at 1.65 trillion yuan for the next five years only if the government does not abolish the hukou system without making contingency plans to deal with developing situations. And apart from the four heads of expenditure issues such as housing and transportation, too, would need additional expenses to be fixed.

Does the central government have enough money for the additional expenses? The answer is no. The government’s overall revenue in 2009 was 6.8 trillion yuan, with the national social security revenue being less than 1.6 trillion yuan. If the income from transfer of land-use rights and public welfare lottery are taken into account, the total national revenue would be about 12 trillion yuan.

Compared with the global standard, China’s fiscal revenue contributes a much bigger share to GDP. For example, China’s GDP is only one-third of America’s and its fiscal revenue two-thirds. This is a fairly high proportion because America’s fiscal revenue is only one-fifth of its GDP.

The share of fiscal revenue in the Chinese government’s income invariably leads to overpricing in the real estate market and to higher taxes. Hence, it doesn’t make economic sense to aggravate the already intense social problems by increasing taxes to pay for the cost of abolishing the hukou system.

Besides, it is not that the government is reluctant to abolish the hukou system.

But it knows that before doing so it has to establish a set of practicable funding schemes to build a new, comprehensive national social security system. Hence, it is irresponsible and irrational to blame the government for the stagnation of the household registration system reform.

Tao Ran: Where there’s a will, there’s a way to reform

The term “hukou reform” has more or less become a catchphrase in the Chinese media and among China’s policymakers. Premier Wen Jiabao has said the government will steadily advance the reform of the decades-long hukou (household registration) system to ensure migrant workers enjoy the same rights as urban residents.

The importance the central leadership attaches to hukou reform is reflected in the Communist Party of China’s “No. 1 Central Committee Document”, issued at the end of January and presented to the just-concluded National People’s Congress. The document says efforts are being made to reform the hukou system in small and medium-sized cities (with population less than 500,000) only to allow migrant workers to settle down there and enjoy the same public facilities and services as people with permanent residence permits do.

But it is necessary to weigh the concrete action plans of the central and the local governments both to know whether the reform will work. And no significant progress can be made on this front unless three specific issues are addressed.

First, hukou reform cannot be successful if just relatively small cities are opened up to migrant workers or other rural migrants. A significant proportion of the country’s migrant workers are employed in large and mega-cities because they offer stable job opportunities in manufacturing and low-end service sectors. It’s those large and super-large cities that have proper public facilities and services. And it’s there that most of the younger generation migrants hope to spend their lives.

Hukou reform pilot programs were introduced in many small and medium-sized cities as early as the mid-1990s. But they met with limited success because such cities offered limited employment opportunities and poor public services. So if hukou reform is confined to relatively small cities, there is reason to be skeptical about its progress.

Second, hukou reform should not only target workers from rural areas of the same province, prefecture or county. China’s rural-urban migration involves large-scale movement of people from agriculture-based inland areas to the more industrialized and urbanized coastal region. Thus a significant percentage of workers from rural areas work outside their home provinces, prefectures or counties. So to be effective, hukou reform must help rural migrants from outside the home county, city or province.

In the past few years, a number of locally run hukou reform projects have been introduced in Chengdu (Sichuan province), Wuhan (Hubei province) and some cities of Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces. But they have met with limited success, because they usually target only rural migrants from within their jurisdiction. Thus it is still extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a worker who has migrated from the inland province of Hunan to, say, Guangzhou or Shenzhen in Guangdong province to get an urban hukou there.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, effective hukou reform should cover the hukou-linked urban public services. Currently, the privileges include urban social assistance (known as Minimum Livelihood Guarantee Scheme), equal access to urban public schools for migrants’ children and locally funded public housing schemes.

It is a common misunderstanding that China’s urban hukou-linked benefits include social security schemes such as pension, medical insurance and unemployment insurance. The social security schemes are job-related rather than hukou-related insurance. Granting urban household permits to rural migrants, therefore, doesn’t imply that city governments would provide social insurance cover for them.

But to make the hukou reform really successful, city governments have to fund the social security schemes, and provide public housing to the migrants and schooling to their children. Unfortunately, local governments often have little incentive for doing this.

In 2004, the central government mandated that city governments with migrant populations provide equal access to schools to migrants’ children but didn’t provide additional financial resources for the purpose. Hence, migrants’ children still have limited access to schools in cities.

If the central government really wants to push hukou reform forward, it should either provide financial assistance to local governments or generate additional tax revenue at the local level to do so. One possibility is to introduce property tax in the local tax system while asking local governments to allocate at least some revenue to provide migrants’ children equal access to schools in cities.

Of the three urban hukou-linked services, providing public housing for migrants could be the most expensive. But if some coordinated reform in land development could be implemented to enable rural migrants’ collectives to develop land for housing rentals on the fringes of cities, the market rather than the government could provide affordable yet decent housing for the hundreds of millions of China’s internal migrants.

One needs only to look at the urban villages in Shenzhen and Guangzhou to understand such an arrangement. Unlike most other Chinese cities, the local governments there are more permissive to land development by rural migrants’ collectives in the suburbs. As a result, millions of migrants from other parts of the country find the massive apartment buildings in the urban villages of Shenzhen and Guangzhou to be the only affordable housing for them.