According to China Central Television's news app on the 8th, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced that China has recently allocated an additional 10 billion RMB (5.904 billion MYR) in central budget investment to launch and expand the "work-for-relief" initiative, aiming to promote employment and increase incomes among key groups and help stabilize and increase their employment.
It was pointed out that this round of investment will support 1,975 projects, expected to create jobs for 310,000 people from key groups nearby, including those who have been lifted out of poverty and those under poverty monitoring, returning migrant workers, and other rural laborers. Out of this batch of 10 billion RMB investment, 4.59 billion RMB (2.71 billion MYR) will be paid as labor remuneration, accounting for 45.9% of the total, further increasing the share of labor remuneration in central government investment.
This batch of investment focuses on small- and medium-sized agricultural and rural infrastructure and infrastructure for urban-rural integration development, aiming to support hardening and improvement of various village roads and alleys, upgrading county or township roads that connect to villages for a total of 9,640 kilometers, dredging over 3,762 kilometers of small drainage and irrigation canals, improving more than 9,180 mu (about 612 hectares) of farmland, laying 2,110 kilometers of water supply and drainage pipelines, and constructing 4,842 rural simple bridges, mountain ponds, and water storage pools.
As of the end of June, the NDRC and the Ministry of Finance had jointly allocated a total of 29.5 billion RMB (17.416 billion MYR) from the central "work-for-relief" investment budget for 2025, supporting nearly 6,000 local work-for-relief projects, which plan to create jobs for more than 700,000 people in project areas, and pay over 11 billion RMB (6.494 billion MYR) in labor remuneration, effectively broadening channels for increasing incomes and employment.
Niu Xiaoshu, Deputy Director-General of the Regional Revitalization Department of the NDRC, said that next, the NDRC will supervise and guide local authorities to start construction of all approved work-for-relief projects, focus on organizing the employment of key groups and ensuring the payment of labor remuneration, as well as continue to regularly and dynamically reserve new projects to ensure that the work-for-relief initiative plays its counter-cyclical role in stabilizing employment and promoting income growth.