State Council decides to tackle shanty towns

The State Council, China’s Cabinet, decided at an executive meeting on May 24 that China will rebuild 15 million units of housing in a shanty town transformation drive. The meeting, presided over by Premier Li Keqiang, said the country will carry out a plan (from 2018-20) for rebuilding shanty towns, or settlements of improvised housing, nationwide and the central government will increase fiscal support for the project. Preferential financial and land policies will be devised and innovation will be encouraged to support the program, according to the meeting. In 2014, China set a goal of reconstructing shanty towns and “urban villages” — less developed rural areas remaining in a fast-urbanized city — to accommodate 100 million people. list of approved vocational qualifications after eliminating and merging some qualifications. The list will be dynamically adjusted in accordance with changes in the real situation, but any addition of new vocational qualifications must be approved by the State Council, the meeting said. Since 2014, China has eliminated 434 vocational qualifications, or more than 70 percent of the total number of vocational qualifications, to leave less room for local government agencies and industrial associations to charge fees for vocational qualifications. grassroots agencies. According to the plan, 100 counties and cities would be selected from 15 provinces and municipalities, such as Anhui and Shaanxi provinces and Beijing municipality, to carry out the work of better publicizing government affairs. The work mainly involves urban and rural planning and major construction projects. Government agencies involved in the plan should improve building of public affair platforms to facilitate online inquiries by the public. The move will help improve the efficiency of governance at grassroots levels and play a significant role in building a rule-based and service-oriented government, the plan said.