“Women can hold up half the sky, ” just like this saying, women in Jinzhou, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province, really enjoy the equality they share with their male counterparts.

　　The statistics speak for themselves. According to the local government, 47,751 females in the city of Jinzhou gained employment in 2005, accounting for 51.4 per cent of the total number of newly registered employees that year.

　　This achievement has not come about easily. Governments at various levels in the city tried every possible means to increase the employment rate, especially for women.

　　Since 2004, the city has opened comprehensive labour markets and provided special employment services tailored to laid-off women. The one-stop employment service includes employment advice, re-employment policy information and guidance, and employment training.

　　With an employment service network set up by neighbourhood committees and grass-roots labour and security bodies last year, policies, capital, management and guidance were all in place for the laid-offs.

　　Moreover, free training courses are now available to all people, instead of just being for special groups.

　　“The employment issue always tops the agenda of Jinzhou municipal government,” said Feng Li, an official from the Jinzhou Children and Women’s Working Committee.

　　The municipal government convenes two conferences each year to work out complete and concrete measures to increase job opportunities.

　　“The authorities try to stipulate and improve special labour protection protocols, forbidding sex discrimination during employment,” Feng said, adding that women must enjoy equal working opportunities to men.

　　They also instructed employers to include the labour protection protocols in their regular labour contracts.

　　Since last year, the city government has carried out extensive research and thorough inspections on the employment situation. To date, it has examined 3,512 enterprises and investigated 31 cases that infringed on women’s rights, involving 132,000 workers.

　　During the inspections, many enterprises were ordered to participate in a compulsory labour insurance system. They paid a total insurance premium of 7.19 million yuan (US$898,750), of which 5.27 million yuan (US$ 658,750) was for women. At the same time, 100 per cent of the 123 complaints put forward by women were properly deal with.

　　Women benefit from new countryside scheme

　　By Yi Lin

　　Echoing the call from the central government to build a new socialist countryside, the government of Lanshan District of Linyi in East China’s ShandongProvince launched a programme to encourage local women to participate in the movement.

　　With the theme “building a new hometown,” the programme aims to strengthen interactive co-operation between urban and rural areas, therefore helping boost the rural economy.

　　Various groups of female volunteers in the city were accordingly organized to help women in rural areas to become affluent.

　　“The volunteers try to establish sisterly ties with their counterparts in the countryside and provide them with projects and financial assistance. They also seek job opportunities for them and provide them with instant market information,” said Chen Hailing, vice-chairwoman of a local women’s organization at the project-launching ceremony.

　　Li Feng, in TanzhuangVillage, together with three other female villagers, received 6,000 breeder hens donated by the volunteer group of the Zaogoutou Township Local Taxation Station at the ceremony.

　　“I am really grateful to have so many breeder hens,” Li said excitedly.

　　In addition, Linyi Fenghua Breeding Poultry Economic Co-operation, a women’s economic co-operation organization in the district, also gave the rural women strong back-up by selling them breeder hens at a preferential price and providing them with a one-stop service for free, including free feed and free epidemic prevention.

　　The local government continues to blaze new trails to build the new socialist countryside, which has been written into its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

　　The central government seeks to promote rural development with the programme of “building　a socialist new countryside,” which aims to improve agricultural production, ethos, living standards, appearance and public administration in the rural areas.

　　HUNAN

　　Needy mothers-to-be get subsidy

　　Poverty-stricken pregnant women in Rucheng County of Central China’s HunanProvince will receive a subsidy from the local government provided that they give birth in hospital.

　　Early this year, RuchengCounty mapped out concrete protocols and measures to aid pregnant women in the county by setting up a fund at the county’s women and children healthcare hospitals.

　　Local authorities said the programme is available to all destitute mothers-to-be in rural areas who give birth at any regular healthcare hospital. Each of the beneficiaries will be provided on average a subsidy of 150 yuan (US$18.75) for a natural labour and 800 yuan (US$100) for a Caesarean operation.

　　Since the new programme was implemented on April 1, a total of 8,450 yuan (US$1,056) has been given to 32 local pregnant women.

　　HEILONGJIANG

　　Small loan to rural women

　　The Qiqihar Rural Credit Co-operatives Union in Northeast China’s HeilongjiangProvince, allocated a total of 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) to be used as small loans to women in rural areas for agricultural development.

　　Local authorities created detailed and feasible measures to ensure these loans reached needy women in the countryside in a timely manner.

　　The loan was extended to the areas of crop production, poultry raising and product processing, as well as to the promising green economy and woman-featured products that play a role in industry structure readjustment.

　　The loan is also aimed at energetic women who have a product project plan but lack start-up money.

　　To date, loans worth 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) have been distributed to 16 counties and districts of the city. Applicants who meet the conditions will have a good chance of obtaining a loan.

　　SICHUAN

　　Farmers to get certificate

　　Farmers in Panzhihua, Sichuan Province, now have easy access to agricultural expertise without having to leave the village, as teachers from the city’s technical secondary school for agricultural knowledge popularization visited their homes to offer training courses.

　　Upon graduation, these student farmers will receive a certificate of secondary learning.

　　In the class of corn production in Xigeda Village of Hongge Township, female farmers account for more than 50 per cent of the total 52 students.

　　“I am so happy to attend the class in my village because I can not only take care of my family but also be involved in agriculture,” one of the students said excitedly. “I am determined to study hard.”

　　Students learn agricultural know-how in both the classroom and the field during the three-year course.

《中国日报》2006年8月