Chongqing- What can be done to promote assistance to enterprises better and stabilize employment? What can be done to strengthen the priority orientation of employment policies and strengthen the coordination of these policies?

Li Yong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and a member of the Leading Party Members' Group and the director of the Chongqing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, is constantly revising and improving a proposal on promoting full employment of high quality during his leisure time.

Li Yong believes that employment is the most basic form of people's livelihood. People's well-being and economic development are interconnected by the human resources and social security undertakings, with significant responsibilities and missions in Chinese modernization. He drafted a proposal this year based on his years of experience in human resources and social security and preliminary research. According to his proposal, he proposed the policy of assisting enterprises to stabilize jobs and loans, expanding the employment priority orientation of financial policies, and targeting micro, small, and medium enterprises for job stabilization and expansion.

Micro, small, and medium enterprises can utilize the special financial product, assisting enterprises to stabilize jobs and loans, reduce financing costs, improve capital liquidity, expand production investment and operations, and stabilize and expand employment.

According to Li Yong, this unique financial product was developed by the People's Bank of China Chongqing Operations Office in 2022 in partnership with the municipal human resources and social security bureau, based on the action of Financial Assistance to Enterprises and Job Stabilization. Forty-one banks in Chongqing have been encouraged to promote this product, reducing loan interest by 310 million yuan (about $44.5 million) for nearly 7,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises and helping to stabilize 240,000 employment.

The bureau is currently exploring special loans for job stabilization and expansion. With the help of some banks, it plans to develop special loan products for micro, small, and medium enterprises with strong employment abilities, good job stabilization effects, and standardized employment. Credit lines of up to 30 million yuan (about $4.31 million) are available, and a discounted interest rate of no more than 4%.

The action of "Financial Assistance to Enterprises and Job Stabilization" is an innovative attempt at cross-border cooperation between Chongqing's human resources and social security departments and financial departments, and it also serves as a concrete example of how financial policy measures and employment policies can work together. In addition to reducing their burdens, it has assisted micro, small, and medium enterprises in stabilizing and expanding employment.

In Li Yong's view, even though the financial product has a good start, due to limitations imposed by the policy framework and other factors, it can only be implemented by the government with the participation of market players, which results in the lack of impetus of some banks taking responsibility for publicity and implementation. Therefore, the incentive effect of policy measures has not been fully exerted.

To this end, Li Yong indicated that financial policies and measures should remain employment-oriented. Quantitative indicators for stabilizing and expanding employment should be clearly presented when introducing financial policies and measures. In addition, stabilizing and expanding employment should be a key component of evaluating the effectiveness of financial policies.

Moreover, the measure of social responsibility assessment of financial industry enterprises will include employment promotion as an indicator, and its proportion will increase. A key step in stabilizing employment and ensuring employment will be the active involvement of financial industry enterprises and vigorous support for small and medium-sized businesses to stabilize employment and expand employment.

In addition, Li Yong also suggested that the People's Bank of China and other departments explore a special financial policy of "assisting enterprises to stabilize jobs and loans" suitable for national promotion, encouraging localities to deepen reform and innovation of financial products, facilitating economic recovery, stimulating the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises, and improving their labor absorption capacity.