Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday presided over a State Council executive meeting that approved the State Council's key employment plan during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), along with a draft regulation aimed at boosting veterans' employment and entrepreneurship.
The meeting emphasized that China will pursue an employment-first strategy, expand and improve job quality, and achieve high-quality full employment. Key measures include improving employment services, broadening channels for young graduates, supporting vulnerable groups, promoting flexible and new forms of employment, and safeguarding workers' rights.
The country will also strengthen workforce development by better aligning education with market needs and expanding vocational skills training, according to the meeting.
The meeting underscored the need to seize opportunities from the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, with a focus on intelligent, green, and integrated development.
China will push forward the upgrading of traditional industries, the expansion of emerging industries, and the forward-looking planning of future industries, according to the meeting.
The meeting also called for encouraging more foreign investment into advanced manufacturing and productive service industries.
Efforts are needed to accelerate breakthroughs in core technologies while fostering more startups and 'unicorn' companies in future industries. To achieve high-quality and full employment, the government will expand vocational training and enhance support for key groups, including veterans, according to the meeting.
Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting on employment plan, future industries
Thousands of evacuees are sheltering in temporary facilities in Bangkok, unable to return home after heavy rain battered the Thai capital over the weekend, leaving widespread flooding across the city.
In Lat Krabang, on the eastern edge of Bangkok, much of the area remains submerged, with floodwaters reaching neck height in some places. The sprawling district includes housing estates, canal-side communities, factories and major roads. It sits a short distance from the Suvarnabhumi Airport.
While some main roads are beginning to reopen, conditions change dramatically in the smaller communities. Among the hardest hit is a housing estate of around 30,000 residents, where people say they have been without electricity, running water, food and drinking water for nearly four days.
"There are no words for it. Everything is just terrible. Just imagine, there are no working toilets, the children can't shower, and there is no food or drinking water. Everything is just piling up. It is an unbearable situation," said Lhin Ong-orn, a resident.
Many residents have moved to a university campus that would normally be filled with students. Its classrooms and other facilities have been repurposed as a refuge for families with nowhere else to go. The campus has become a displacement center sheltering around 2,000 people, one of more than 200 temporary shelters set up across the capital since the flooding began.
Those brought in include elderly residents, people with limited mobility, and others with injuries or health problems. Many have been evacuated from neighborhoods that remain completely cut off, where basic services have been disrupted and essential supplies remain difficult to deliver.
"The water level kept fluctuating, and my father is ill, requiring an oxygen machine around the clock. After the power was cut off on the evening of September 26, the oxygen machine couldn't work. We decided we had to get out, so I contacted rescue foundations to help evacuate my family," said Kittiphong Singhsae, a resident.
Thailand's nationwide flooding since Sept 16 has left eight people dead, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said Monday.
Twenty-eight provinces, including Bangkok, are still affected, mainly in Thailand's central, northern, eastern and northeastern regions. Between Sept 16 and 28, flooding swept through 42 provinces, affecting 1.8 million people, according to the department.
Thousands left without food, power amid severe floods in Bangkok
