Crackdown on illegal fundraising to be intensified

A number of ministry-level departments, including those responsible for human resources and social security, agriculture and rural affairs, and industry and information technology, have responded recently to issues of public concern.

Regulation to target illegal fundraising

China will speed up efforts to launch a regulation on preventing illegal fundraising this year, a joint ministerial meeting said on April 20.

There were 5,888 criminal fundraising cases filed in China last year, up 3.4 percent year-on-year, with the amount of money involved up 53.4 percent to 543.42 billion yuan ($76.7 billion), according to the meeting.

It called for efforts to improve the emergency response mechanism for dealing with illegal fundraising activities and a steady and orderly crackdown on such practices in key areas such as online lending and private equity.

The number of illegal fundraising cases should be greatly reduced this year, it said.

The meeting also urged efforts to compile a three-year plan for the establishment of a national illegal fundraising monitoring and early warning system, improve interconnectivity between national and local platforms and enable financial institutions to play a bigger role.

Graduates can start work before gaining licenses

College graduates qualified to apply for licenses required for certain jobs can start work before obtaining them due to the disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus pneumonia pandemic, a notice published on Thursday said.

The notice, jointly issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and six other ministries, said the measure was aimed at further stabilizing employment and promoting job opportunities for college graduates.

It said graduates who haven't obtained teaching qualifications or those required to become nurses, fishery crew, veterinarians, or show business or patent agents, can engage in related work and attend exams to obtain the qualifications later.

Law graduates who haven't obtained professional qualification certificates can apply for internships at law firms.

Once the internship is complete, they will be evaluated by the lawyers association. Those who obtain professional qualification certificates within a year of passing their evaluation can apply for lawyers' practicing certificates, the notice said.

Former Yangtze River fishermen better off

China has supported around 128,000 fishermen to lead better lives after they gave up their nets and boats on the Yangtze River to observe a fishing ban aimed at protecting biodiversity.

The government has provided them with living subsidies, employment services and medical and social insurance to help them cope with the changes, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Thursday.

A 10-year fishing moratorium began this year in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River basin. It will be expanded to all the natural waterways of the country's longest river and its major tributaries by the beginning of next year.

The full-scale ban is likely to affect more than 113,000 fishing boats and nearly 280,000 fishermen in 10 provincial regions along the river, according to earlier estimates.

Local governments should work to ensure that the affected fishermen are able to settle down and make a better living, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, it said, efforts should also be made to enhance monitoring and legal enforcement to secure the full implementation of the fishing ban, which could be a difficult task due to its large scale.

More support for digital innovation drive

China will speed up technological research on the construction and application of digital infrastructure, a senior Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official said on April 17.

Speaking at a seminar in Beijing, Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of the MIIT, said more support will be provided to the research and development of fifth-generation enhancement technology and sixth-generation technology, while promoting the accurate matching of innovation, industrial, capital and policy chains.

Chen said the ministry will take a string of measures to optimize industrial development, such as expediting construction of 5G networks and the industrial internet connecting people, machine and things, developing new types of intelligent computing facilities, advancing the orderly construction and application of large data centers and building a network security system.

Xinhua contributed to the story.