(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-24 17:01

China's top legislature on Friday began deliberating a draft law on employment promotion which calls for more financial support for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The draft law was submitted Friday to the 29th session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, for a third reading.

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The draft law said the State will implement financial polices favorable to employment promotion and expand channels of fund-raising for SMEs.

The draft law said the State will encourage financial institutions to improve financial services and enhance credit support for medium-and SMEs.

The draft law said the State will support those who start their own businesses by providing small loans in certain period.

The State will support economic development of ethnic minority regions and expand employment in these areas, it said.

The draft law said employers should not refuse to employ laborers of ethnic minority because they are ethnic minority people or raise the threshold for employing ethnic minority people.

Government at or above the county level should build employment forewarning systems to prevent, regulate and control possible large-scale unemployment.

Enterprises should have education fund for employees and open vocational training courses for employees.

The draft law, aiming to promote employment and prohibit job discrimination, was submitted for the first review in February and for the second review in June 2007.

The Law Committee of NPC held that the draft law, after two rounds of discussion and revision, has become relatively mature and suggested that lawmakers examine and approve the bill at the end of this session.

According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the registered unemployed people in urban districts reached 8.38 million and the registered unemployment rate in urban districts was 4.1 percent by the end of last June, down 0.1 percentage point over the same period of last year.