June 10th, 2021

Mr. President,

The world, which is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, is taking the onset of pandemic and coming under a significant increase in both instabilities and uncertainties. The Chinese government appreciates the series measures against the COVID-19 the ILO initiated to assist the Organization's tripartite constituents to cope with the ensuing challenges in the world of work.

The unexpected outbreak at the beginning of last year caused China's economic operation to PAUSE, and the surveyed unemployment rate hit a record high of 6.2%. The Chinese government, adhering to its people-centered development philosophy, aligned pandemic prevention and control with socio-economic development, sparing no effort to protect people's livelihood.

First, accelerate the recovery of employment. We established a scheduling mechanism to assist workers of key enterprises, and more than 6 million workers moved back to work in a safe and orderly manner by chartered flights and buses, thus assisting manufacturers of materials critical for pandemic control to resume production. Second, protect market entities. We implemented measures to protect enterprises in order to stablize employment through tax reduction and fee cuts including a temporary reduction on enterprises' social insurance contribution and paying out job retention subsidies, while ensuring workers' social security rights. Third, improve digital services. We synthesized registration, contribution, benefits claim and payment of social insurances in an integrated online system, carried out online training, and promoted online recruitment. Thanks to these efforts, employment situation in China remained relatively stable. In 2020, 11.86 million jobs were created in urban areas and the unemployment rate fell back to 5.2%, making positive contributions to China's eradication of absolute poverty and sustaining support to global economic recovery.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an important task for us in the world of work to prevail over the pandemic, restore economic growth, and maintain employment stability. To this end, I would like to propose 3 suggestions.

First, strengthen international cooperation. Solidarity and cooperation are crucial not only to our joint fight against the pandemic but economic recovery. The Chinese government supports the outcome document of COVID-19 responses to be adopted at this Conference for a shared community of common future in the world of work. We note with regret, however, that certain powers in the world in disregard of their own serious cases of forced labour and child labour, fabricated malicious lies and monger groundless slanders against other countries. This runs counter to the multilateralism upheld by the international community, avails no merit to the cooperation of pandemic control, and only causes greater damage to the people around the world. Second, enhance policy coordination. The ILO Centenary Declaration needs to take effects. We should coordinate monetary, fiscal, taxation and other macro policies with employment policies, improve the regulation of new forms of work together with the protection of workers in this regard so as to achieve high-quality employment. Third, promote sustainable development. We should strive for synergy between economic development, job creation, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection, with an aim to achieve the common goal on economic growth and decent work in the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

The world is a commonwealth where harmony brings development. The Chinese government stands ready to work with tripartite constituents around the globe to safeguard the overall stability of world economy and employment and push forward for a human-centered recovery.

Thank you, Mr. President.