People's livelihood has become a hot topic during the ongoing first session of the 10th Tibet People's Political Consultative Conference held in Lhasa on Jan. 22, 2013.

According to the work report, in 2012, along with the rapid economic and social development of Tibet, the Tibet regional government has given top priority to improving people's livelihood, which had achieved a breakthrough in housing, employment and social security.

Employment goal has been reached

Ma Xiangcun, director of the Tibet Department of the Human Resources and Social Security, also a non-voting deputy at the annual conference said the newly employed population had reached 25,000, and the registered urban unemployment rate was within 2.6 percent in 2012.

By the end of November 2012, 16,991 of the total 17,274 Tibetan graduates had achieved employment, and the employment rate was 98.36 percent, which achieved the goal of “Tibetan college graduates fully realize employment and graduates of previous year basically achieving employment,” according to Ma.

The Tibet regional government had also provided public service job opportunities for 19,900 people troubled by job-hunting and 2,233 “unemployed families” had found jobs.

In order to achieve full employment for the Tibetan graduates, the Tibet government had also implemented a series of rewarding policies to encourage all kinds of enterprises and institutions to increase their abilities of recruiting more graduates.

Graduates who had chosen to work in enterprises and institutions outside of Tibet had also received some subsidies.

Social Security has been further improved

Ma Xiangcun said the Social Insurance Policy system covering both urban and rural Tibetan residents had been further improved to cater to the need of the local residents. A total of 2.38 bln yuan social insurance against various risks had been cashed in by the end of 2012.

The pension and social endowment insurance system for new rural and urban residents from all walks of life had also been realized.

By 2012, the Tibetan social insurance has fulfilled a coverage of all residents. The ratio of the pension insurance coverage in the new rural areas had risen to 91 percent. The number of people enjoying various social insurances had reached 2.3972 mln, the highest record ever.

In 2012, the local government had also increased the payment of the social insurance, such as continuous adjusting the basic pension of enterprise retirees for eight times, increasing pension per capita per month to 2,704 yuan, the highest in the country.

The basic pension per month of the new rural areas had also increased to 90 yuan from 55 yuan, while the number for urban residents was 120 yuan.

Low-income housing has been comprehensively advanced

Chen Jin, director of the Department of the Housing and Urban Rural Development of the Tibet Autonomous Region, who is also a non-voting deputy at the annual conference said the Tibetan government had implemented a series of measures to improve the living conditions for the low- and middle-income families, and one of them was the Economy Housing Project.

By the end of 2012, over 70,000 farmers and herdsmen had moved into new affordable houses through the project, according to the poverty relief office of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The project started with an expected investment of 500 million yuan. At present the construction of 14,723 houses has been finished and that of the remaining 7,277 houses will be all completed next year, when more than 100,000 poor farmers and herdsmen are expected to move into new houses.

In order to solve the housing problem for low-income families, in 2012, the local government had lowered rents for three times, and in the meanwhile increased the occupancy rate of the completed low-rent housing to 92 percent.