EU-CHINA SOCIAL
PROTECTION REFORM PROJECT
COMPONENT ONE
PRESENTATION OF
2015 ACTIVITIES
OUR
TASK:
Consolidate institutional capacity for social
protection policy development and reforms in China
2015 OVERSEAS ACTIVITIES (Brussels
International workshop, Training in France, 3-Countries dialogue & Study visit)
RESEARCH AND PEER REVIEWS (First and Second Panel discussions)
TEMPORARY
COMPONENT WEBSITE: http://www.sprp-cn.eu
OUR
MAIN CHINESE PARTNER:
The
National Development Reform Commission NDRC
Ms. Ji Ning, Counselor,
Department of Employment and Income Distribution
C1 Project leader for NDRC 
,
Ms. Tang Ling and
Mr. Chang Hao , Project C1 coordinators
Employment
& Income distribution Department,
NDRC
International cooperation Centre
OUR COMPONENT COORDINATOR: EXPERTISE FRANCE (formerly
ADECRI)
Mr.
Laurent de Lespinay, Component coordinator 
OUR TEAM
Resident
expert Mr. Jean-Victor Gruat; 
Main Chinese expert Operations Mr Zhang Guoqing;
Main Chinese expert Research Mr Fang Lianquan 
The workshop on the Reform of Public
Pension systems was held on 2 and 3 February 2015, under the auspices of the
Federal Public Service (FPS) of Social Security, working closely with the
RVP/ONP (National Pension Office) of Belgium.
Delegations
from the EU side and from China side included government officials, scholars
from research institutions and universities, and managers from financial
sectors. Representatives from the World Bank, from the OECD and from the
European Commission attended and played an active role in the discussions. The
head of Chinese delegation, Ms. Ji Ning, Counsel at the National Development
and Reform commission NDRC met with the Belgian Federal Minister for Pensions, Mr.
Daniel Bacquelaine (Picture)
.
In
total, more than 50 persons participated in this event where six technical
sessions were organized.
Plenary
session 1: Reform Trend of Public Pension in a Global Context
Plenary
session 2: EU Experience and Lessons on Public Pension System Reform
Plenary
session 3: Multi-tier Pension System Construction
Plenary
session 4: Political, Economic and Social Conditions of Pension Reforms
Plenary
session 5: Comparison between Public Sectors and Private Sectors on Pension
System
Plenary
session 6: Lessons Learned and Conclusions
The Brussels Workshop was unanimously
praised as a high quality event, which provided a broad European panorama of
major reforms in public pension systems that could be put in a truly Chinese
perspective, thanks to a wealth of national and international reports. The
input from non-Consortium member states and representatives from international
organizations was particularly appreciated.
The perfect organization and the kind
hospitality of its Belgian hosts furthermore added to the quality and success
of the Workshop.
The Chinese delegation at the Brussels Workshop
Ms. Ji Ning addressing the audience at the opening of the Brussels
Workshop
Brussels Workshop View of delegates during plenary
session
A high level training on Multi-tier
pension systems in Europe was organized by ADECRI and EXPERTISE France in June
2015, for 20 high-level NDRC Officials including 16 coming from Provincial
delegations. The delegation was led by Mr. Ha Zengyou, Deputy Director General
of the Department of Employment and Income Distribution of the NDRC who also
held direct discussions with Mr. Thomas Fatome, Director of French social
security (see picture).
Lectures delivered included both the
French and the European experience. Lecturers came from within the French
system general pension scheme, supplementary pension schemes, ministry of
Finance, workers’ and employers’ representatives, the insurance sector, the
rural pension scheme, the regional pension schemes, the National School for
Higher Social Security Studies -, from several national pension systems across
Europe notably from Italy, Romania, Spain, - and from international
organizations such as the International Labour Organization ILO and the
OECD. A total of 20 training
sessions were organized, covering a variety of topics such as Providing comprehensive
responses to the challenges of pension systems reforms, the Strategic analysis
and monitoring of pension system, Inter-schemes coordination, Providing
basic pensions to specific populations,
Management and financing of public pension schemes, Pension and international
labour standards, Active ageing, Pension schemes for non-salaried workers,
farmers and the self-employed, Implementing the pensions reform at the regional
level, IT management and database management for pensions, The impact of economic crisis on pension sytems reforms.
Group picture in front of the MGEN training center
One small group training session
The
good organization of the training event, the variety of the topics covered, the
high professionalism of the lecturers and the quality of training materials
produced were highly appreciated by the participants, who confirmed this
exercise would be of great practical value for their work in support of the Chinese
social security reform at the central level, or at that of Provincial
governments of China. It was noted that this training came at a crucial moment,
when critical decisions were in the making concerning the future design of the
Chinese pension system. The contribution of the project to enhance the level of
understanding of key NDRC officials in European pension theory and practices
was therefore highly relevant and deeply appreciated.
MADRID, PRAGUE AND WARSAW, OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2015
Mr. Pu Yufei with Mr. Tomas Burgos, Secretary of State for Social Security, Spain
A
group of 6 high-level NDRC officials and experts, led by Mr. Pu Yufei, Director
General, Department of Employment and Income distribution, NDRC, undertook a
Dialogue and Study visit to Spain, the Czech Republic and Poland between 27
October and 5 November, on the topic of Employment and Social security reform
with special reference to Migrant workers questions.
In Prague, with Ms
Iva Merhautová, Deputy Minister for Contributory
Social Schemes
The
programme for the visit was established in respective host countries on the
basis of requirements expressed by NDRC, in view of their own sense of
priorities concerning the subject matter. The sub-topics to be addressed were
also divided between the three host countries according to their perceived best
experiences and Consortium members’ fields of competence to avoid repetition
and maximize exchange opportunities. In that respect, it is worth noting that
the title henceforth retained for this type of activity (“Dialogue and Study visit”) clearly points to the desire of
Government officials to make full use of project facilities to enter into real discussion
with their European counterparts, so that contacts may be mutually beneficial.
In Warsaw, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy
Contacts
held with participants since their return to China testifies to a high degree
of satisfaction with the practical arrangements for which responsibilities were
shared between host countries, EXPERTISE FRANCE as project coordinator and the
project secretariat, as well as with the technical contents and exchanges with
counterpart Agencies.
The summary of the evaluation made by participants in
hereafter reproduced
|
|
Logistics |
Organisa-tion |
Technical Contents |
Open Discus-sion |
Materials |
Social Events |
Overall |
|
Mark
over 5 |
4.76 |
4.27 |
4.81 |
4.17 |
4.15 |
4.67 |
5.00 |
The C1 Activity plan for 2015 as
adopted by the PAC meeting on 21 April 2015 foresaw that two panel
discussions would be held to review the topics considered during the year. Topics
were split into two batches, the first one grouping topics 1.1.1. - Social
insurance administration systems reform (Contribution to the XIIIth
Five-Year plan), 1.3.2 - Social pooling of the basic pension component
(Evaluation of the combination of basic pension & individual accounts) and
1.3.4. - Multi-tiered design of pension systems (public pension, enterprise
annuity and individual pension) - to be held towards mid-year, and the
second one addressing topics 1.3.1 - Pension reform for public sectors and
1.4.3 - Strategy of integrating social security system in urban and rural
context also through the portability of social insurance being scheduled
for the end of the same year.
Three
eminent Chinese experts were selected in April 2015 by the C1 project team and
NDRC to conduct an in-depth research on the priority topics retained for the
first half of the year 2015. Mr. Tan Zhonghe, from the National Social Security
Institute, was in charge of the report preparing for the XIIIth Five-Years Plan
(2016-2020). Mr. Song Xiaowu, one of the Chinese lead economists, reviewed the
combination of social pooling with individual accounts. Mr. Dong Keyong, Dean
emeritus of the School of Public
Administration and Policy in Renmin University addressed the issue of the
design of a suitable multitier pension system.
The three authors at
the 1st Panel discussion meeting. From left to right, Mr. Dong
Keyong, Mr. Tan Zhonghe, Mr. Song Xiaowu
Those three authors confronted their views
during a panel discussion meeting held on 28 July 2015 under Ms. Ji Ning
effective chairpersonship, with the interactive participation of Mr Koen
Vleminckx
, a Belgian renowned European expert. Mr
Vleminckx conducted a one-month mission to China to analyse the topics under
review with the authors and other interested stakeholders including Ministry of
Human resources and Social security, in charge of implementing all social
security schemes across China. On the basis of this joint analysis, a
preliminary selection of most relevant European best practices could be made,
and shared with NDRC on the occasion of the panel discussion meeting.
Participants were unanimous in praising this
collaborative approach where European experience was actually confronted to the
Chinese reality, in a manner that would ensure the selection of the most
relevant European achievements on which to build future technical cooperation
activities.
1st Panel
discussion meeting
The bench of the
assistants …
The second panel discussion covering the
other two topics considered in 2015 was held in Beijing on 13 November. It was co-chaired by Ms Ji Ning, Project
leader on behalf of NDRC and the EU C1 Resident Expert. Chinese experts
selected for conducting the national situation analysis were Ms Zhang Yinghua
from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for the Reform of Public sector
pensions, and Mr Wang Zeying, from the Social Security Institute by the
Ministry of Human resources and Social security for the Strategy
of integrating social security system in urban and rural context.
From left to right,
NDRC Ms Ji Ning (Project leader), Zhang Xinmei
(Division director), Tang Ling (Project coordinator), EUD Beijing Ms Yi Xiaolin
Participants from C1 side included the EU resident
expert, the Main Chinese Experts Research and Operations, the two Chinese
experts, authors of the reports under consideration (topics 1.3.1 and 1.4.3)
and the EU Best practices Expert Mr. Koen Vleminckx who had just started his
second mission to China. NDRC was represented by members of its Employment and
Income distribution department and ICC, led by Ms Ji Ning, Inspector and
project leader, assisted by Ms Tang Ling and Mr. Chang Hao, Component coordinators
on behalf of national stakeholders. Representatives from Provincial
authorities, of pilot sites both in Guangdong and Sichuan Provinces and of
academic circles attended the sessions. The EU Delegation was represented by
the Project official.
Second Panel discussion, 23 November 2015
The activity was rated as extremely useful and
timely by all participants including representatives from Sichuan and Guangdong
Provinces who were invited to attend. It is worth noting that, thanks to the
association to the discussion of representatives from the Provinces,
participants could include in their review of the topics at stake first-hand
information on the results achieved and difficulties encountered both in the
implementation of the Public sector pension reform, and in handling claims
related to the integration of rural and urban pension schemes. The latter was
thoroughly documented through a specific case study produced on the basis of
Huizhou city experience, to be used as a basis for future technical cooperation
activities to be conducted under C1 framework.
The
Project Advisory Committee, meeting on 21 April 2015, had endorsed the
choice of three pilot sites for C1 activities, namely Shanghai city for the topic on Ageing population,
Sichuan Province - city of Luzhou - for rural-urban integration including
migrant workers issues and Guangdong province - city of Huizhou - for
Migrant workers’ questions.
Luzhou city 
Huizhou city
At
the initiative of NDRC, two field visits were organised in September 2015, to
respectively Huizhou and Guangzhou cities (Guangdong Province) and Luzhou and Chengdu
cities (Sichuan Province). Those missions aimed at gaining first-hand knowledge
of the situation in pilot sites, and at listening to the expectations of local
authorities concerning their collaboration with the project C1 component.
Representatives from the EU delegation took part on the mission to Sichuan
province, thus marking their interest in project activities.
Visiting Social security community center, Luzhou City
Meeting with City Government officials
Detailed
documents expressing the respective provincial fields of interest were
subsequently sent to NDRC and shared with the C1 team. Basically, the Provinces
request exposure from the project on General introduction to social security
policy in the EU, Monitoring and operational systems, Building IT systems for social security
and fund raising, Vesting and portability of social security rights for migrant
workers. They requested that knowledge sharing take the form of capacity
building either in-country or abroad.
Visiting pharmaceutical company in Huizhou
Not
to delay implementation of cooperative activities with the Pilot sites, it was
decided by NDRC and the C1 team that the second Panel discussion, dealing inter
alia with issues related to migrant workers’ social security, would associate
representatives from selected pilot sites in Guangdong and Sichuan provinces.
It is foreseen that a further training will be provided in situ in February
2016.
Contacts
with Shanghai pilot site will take place at a later stage, tentatively in
February 2016, since the preferred topic for that site is Ageing, a theme at
the core of proposed C1 related project activities for the year 2016 (Training
in Spain) for which the advanced suggestions from Pilot site representatives
will be sought.
2016 ENVISAGED PROGRAMME OF MAIN ACTIVITIES
|
Title |
Timing |
Title |
Timing |
|
5-topics
Workshop, Beijing |
Jan.2016 |
Dialogue & study visit, Belgium and France |
2nd half |
|
Provincial training, Guangdong or Sichuan |
Feb.2016 |
Panel discussion on 2016 topics (preparation for
HLE) |
Jul.2016 |
|
Visit to Shanghai Pilot site |
Feb.2016 |
High level event on 2016-2020
Perspectives for Employment policies and Social security reform |
Sept.2016 |
|
Policy dialogue & International Workshop,
Employment & Social security |
Apr.2016 |
Dialogue
& Study visit Czech R. & France Provincial & NDRC HQ officials, SS management |
Oct.2016 |
|
Training, Spain, Ageing and Social security |
Jun.2016 |
Dialogue & Study visit Italy, NDRC HQ officials
(combined with preceding) |
Oct.2016 |
Guangyao Mansion, 17 Chaoyangmen Outer Street, Office 10-08
contact@sprp-cn.eu Tel.
+86-10-65802888*1008
Our
temporary component website: http://www.sprp-cn.eu
The contents of this
publication is the sole responsibility
of the Component 1 Resident Expert for the EU-China
Social protection Reform project,
and can
in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union