IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Transport

Public opinion sought on rail safety

China has started to solicit public opinion on draft railway safety regulations that seek to impose tighter standards for locomotive parts, signal systems and railway contracts.

The draft, published by the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office on June 18, bans prime contractors from subcontracting railroad projects that involve pillars, beams, rails and protection measures.

In the event of shared projects, prime and sub-contractors would bear joint liability under the draft, which also requires fencing to be installed when the train's speed exceeds 120 kilometers per hour.

Illegal subcontracting played a role in several scandals last year.

Bike rental wheels into Beijing

The first batch of bicycles provided by the government for public use in Beijing have proved to be popular with the residents and are expected to boost the use of public transport in the city.

"More than 200 residents have called to inquire about the services, while 130 people registered to use the bikes in Chaoyang district on Tuesday," Mu Liang, a manager at GlobalNet Communication Technology Beijing, one of the two operators of the bike rental service, said on June 19.

Nearly 2,000 bicycles have been stationed in 63 locations with high traffic flow in Beijing's Dongcheng and Chaoyang districts since June 16 to provide a green and low-carbon transport service to residents, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.

The public bicycle service will be extended to all districts in Beijing later, and 50,000 bikes are expected to be in use across 1,000 designated locations by 2015.

Employment

Talent search to get foreign help

International headhunters may help government officials in identifying and employing the best talent for various industrial sectors in China soon.

"We are exploring ways to cooperate with international headhunters as they have a large number of resources that can help our programs," said Xiong Zhixue, general manager of China Services International, an organization under the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

Xiong said his organization, one of the key government bodies that oversees talent introduction programs in China, will host more meetings and seminars to let international headhunters get a better understanding of the talent requirements.

The One Thousand Foreign Experts Project, which the government launched late last year, plans to invite 500 to 1,000 high-end non-Chinese foreign professionals from other countries over the next decade.

labor

No plan to raise retirement age

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on June 20 that there is no immediate plan to raise the retirement age.

The ministry has conducted studies on raising the retirement age and submitted proposals to central authorities, but these studies do not mean that an immediate change will take place, according to an unnamed ministry official quoted in a report by the People's Daily. China's aging society and tight job market mean that any policies concerning retirement must be created with extreme care, the official said.

The retirement age is 60 for males, 55 for female government employees and 50 for female workers.

Internet

Sina Weibo starts paid services

Sina Weibo, a popular micro-blogging site in China has started paid premium services for its members. For a 10-yuan ($1.57, 1.24 euros) monthly fee, users get a membership badge to flaunt on their Sina Weibo profiles. VIP users also enjoy other perks such as personalized pages and voice blog posts.

According to Xu Yuanyuan, a member of the marketing team at Sina, the move is to guarantee a more convenient and safer environment for users.

But most of its more than 300 million users seem to prefer the free version and have been cool on the premium membership plan announced on June 18.

Society

Big city residents less satisfied

Residents from Beijing and Guangzhou, Guangdong province, are the least satisfied with their quality of life, compared with 33 other Chinese cities, says the latest Chinese City Quality of Life Report released on June 16.

The report, jointly released by the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Capital University of Economics and Business, bases its findings on answers from 9,516 respondents and more than 210,000 phone calls. It showed residents' satisfaction rate on quality of life and the objective quality of life (based on social and economic indexes) among 35 Chinese cities.

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were out of the top 10 slot in areas such as residents' satisfaction. However, these cities remained in the top five in factors like the objective quality of life. A high cost of living, mainly from high housing prices and inflation, was the key factor behind residents' low satisfaction.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/22/2012 page2)