China decides to further reduce tax

The executive meeting of the State Council, China's Cabinet, presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on April 19, decided to further reduce tax. The reform of replacing business tax with value-added tax, which has already reduced tax by 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) in the first quarter this year, will be further propelled. The tax rate structure will be simplified, the scale of small and micro-businesses will be expanded, and tax deduction for research and development for small and medium-sized enterprises in the science and technology sectors will be increased.

Nation approves draft Public Library Law

The executive meeting of the State Council, presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on April 19, approved the draft Public Library Law. The draft stipulates the government's responsibility of enhancing public library construction and encouraging social participation. It also stipulates the management systems and service functions of public libraries, and requires them to improve services in providing digital resources, and enhance integration of online and offline resources. The draft will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for approval.

Measures to be taken to promote job market

The State Council has recently issued a document encouraging increasing employment and helping business startups. The document said that the job market is the biggest issue for the livelihood of the country's more than 1.3 billion people and it is also a key support for its economic development. The document said the country will take five measures to help stabilize the job market: sticking to the strategy of giving priority to employment; seeking new ways to increase jobs; promoting employment through business startups; paying special attention to jobs for key groups; and enhancing training and providing services to promote employment and facilitate business start-ups.

Fee charging reform for mineral sector

Public to have easier access to insurance

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Finance and the National Health and Family Planning Commission have jointly issued a document on the combination of maternity insurance and employee basic medical insurance. The program will be launched in 12 cities, including Handan in Hebei province, Shenyang in Liaoning provinces and Taizhou city in Jiangsu province. The document requires that the implementation of pilot programs should be started before the end of June. After the project is completed, employees that have access to basic medical insurance will automatically be covered by maternity insurance.

Improvement in logistics services urged

Eleven ministries and departments, including the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the National Development and Reform Commission, have jointly issued a guideline to improve the quality of logistics. The document urges that 9 key tasks, including enhancing logistics enterprises' awareness of service quality and establishing an indicator system of service quality, be adopted to promote the upgrading of industry. By 2020, a quality management system of modern logistics services is expected to be established.

Ministry to share information with public

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has recently issued an interim regulation on the sharing and management of the ministry's official information resources. The document aims to promote the sharing of the ministry's governmental information to facilitate the use of government-related information. The ministry says in sharing such information, the principles of safe use and unified management in accordance with relevant laws and regulations must be stuck to.