Guangdong province plans to take a number of measures related to social insurance to help companies ease the burden of the declining economy.
According to the Guangdong Provincial Labor and Social Security Department, these measures will help companies and employees of the province with total savings of about CNY15 billion and benefits for 1.9 million employees.
The measures taken by the province are reported to include lowering the insurance premium rate of four social insurance items, allowing companies in difficulties to postpone the payment of social insurance for their employees, and providing social insurance subsidy for companies in difficulties as well as subsidies for employee training. The lowering of the insurance premium rate is said to be effective for the whole of 2009.
At present, the local labor departments are working on measures related to the adjustment of the insurance fees with more details to be revealed in coming weeks.