Coordinating work on injury insurance

China will pilot rental housing projects in designated rural areas in 13 cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou in Guangdong province and Shanghai, said a plan released on Aug 28.

Under the pilot plan, rural collective economic organizations are allowed to build and rent houses on rural construction land either by themselves or via joint ventures, according to the plan issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

The plan said rental housing projects should be carried out to prowork vide long-term housing for the renters to serve as examples for other cities around the country. The move will provide urban dwellers more options and aims to create a housing system that is stable and fair for renters and owners after property prices have surged over the past few years in major cities, especially in Beijing and Shanghai. The policy also aims to curb speculation by supporting the development of the rental housing market.

In China, land in rural and suburban areas is owned by farmers and is managed by village committees or rural collective economic organizations. Meanwhile, the plan said renters of houses built in the pilot projects will enjoy basic public services such as education and healthcare. However, arable land should not be used for such purposes to respect the wish and interests of farmers, the plan said. By the end of 2020, provincial governments will coordinate funds for work injury insurance, said a notice released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance.

Within provincial-level regions, injury insurance will be unified in the coverage, payment ratio, injury identification, payment standards and information system.

Meanwhile, better-off regions can practice collective collection and spending of funds in work injury insurance, or set up a regulation fund account at the provincial level to make up the deficits in some cities. Starting from Sept 1, the benchmark price of natural gas for nonresidential users was cut by 100 yuan ($15) per thousand cubic meters to ease the burden on downstream industries, said the National Development and Reform Commission on Aug 30. The move will save 7 billion yuan each year for industrial users, power generation companies, central heating suppliers, taxi drivers, commercial entities, serThe vice providers and other downstream entities, the commission said. Nonresidential users consume about 80 percent of China’s natural gas.