In order to respond to the needs arising from economic reforms and to move beyond a traditional manual data-handling system, the Chinese Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MSS) has undertaken the transformation of its information system from straightforward data-processing into a management information system. This action, which sets out first to reorganize the MLSS's data-processing system to feed in to the general policy-making process, should eventually improve the provision of direct services to users such as trade unions, employers and job-seekers. The number of the latter is high because of the period of transition which has led to mass redundancies as state enterprises are placed on a profit-making basis.

The MLSS's Information Centre (IC) was created in 1988 and is responsible for the Labour and Social Security Management Information System on (LSSMIS). Its objective is the provision to the Ministry, through the LSSMIS, of the instruments necessary for general policy-making decisions founded on a reliable analysis of labour market data and to provide central and local government as well as employers and workers with information suited to their needs. The overall task is to improve the quality of management in the Ministry and in its user services in the field of labour and social security and especially of employment.

The full implications of this initiative can be seen in the context of the measures adopted by the government in the move from a planned to a socialist market economy, which requires from public institutions in general and the labour administration in particular the establishment of high-quality upstream technical services especially where employment services are concerned.

The retraining of workers made redundant by newly profit-oriented state enterprises concerns some 8 per cent of the adult population, or more than 6,3 million workers. Even though job placement services must be set up within enterprises with large-scale redundancies, the pressure on the employment services themselves is still very great, and instruments such as an effective LSSMIS are essential for the registration and processing of personal data, unemployment insurance and other benefits, as well as for the provision of a placement and training service in harmony with the needs of its clients.

The role of the leading actors

The MLSS is divided into two main parts. On the one hand there are the so-called administrative departments - planning, finance legal services, training and employment, old-age insurance etc., while on other there are a series of institutions and departments, all enjoying the same degree of autonomy, such as the Information Centre, the Labour Studies Academy, the Social Security Bureau, and the Professional Registration Centre. The Information Centre has sole responsibility for the design of the Ministry's general information system, while each component part of the structure is responsible, as a sub-system of the general information system, for the provision of its own specific data requirements.

As a section of the Ministry's core structure, the IC's structure, organization, operations and staff all belong to the Ministry and it must therefore fit in with the Ministry's system of organization. It comprises six divisions: Administration, Systems, Operations, Technology, Research and Analysis, and Network Relations. The IC's relations with its users are conducted principally through the Network Relations division.

The IC's principal function are as follows:

for internal Ministry users:
- planning and devising software and operation for the LSSMIS at national level;
- the creation of an information network and the introduction of management systems in the Ministry;
- the design and maintenance of databases at national and ministerial level;
- analysis and diffusion of policy-relevant information on labour issues for use by government bodies, workers and employers at the national level;
for external users:
- technical and advisory support for Provincial and Municipal Labour Offices;
- planning, designing and implementing a nationwide data network for Job Placement Agencies and for the network's Service Centre.

The LSSMIS is divided into seven activity fields, namely Employment and Unemployment Insurance, Old-Age Insurance, Maternity and Medical Insurance, Accident Insurance, Wage Management, Labour Relations, and Occupational Development and Training.

The Centre is funded from the budget of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security which is provided entirely by central government. The entire infrastructure of the Centre, including its premises. equipment and other material is provided by the Ministry, although the budget is insufficient for its needs.

Decisions on whether to proceed with major projects are given the go-ahead personally by the Minister, while other decisions are taken by the Centre's Director. 45 per cent of the budget is allocated to staff costs, 15 per cent to administration and 40 per cent to information.

In addition to policy-makers, the main users of the Centre's services are Provincial and Local Labour Offices, Job Placement Agencies, trade unions and employers. The Centre holds regular consultative symposia to improve its ability to respond to their needs.

Implementation

The Information Centre's tasks are directly connected to the MLSS's mission, and its development programme is therefore directly tied in with the Ministry's own planning. The broad outlines of the Centre's Ninth Five-Year Plan and its long-term objectives for the year 2010 were drawn up in 1994, but this planning will be reviewed in the light of the recently initiated reform and reorganization of the Ministry.

The LSSMIS was devised by the Centre in 1988 and launched in 1989. It encompasses all fields of activity in the social and labour spheres, which means Provincial and Local Labour and Social Security Offices, and all other basic administrative units, and it provides the elements necessary for an effective handling of organization, management, monitoring and evaluation. Management data are organized in four main categories in accordance with following purposes:

general policy decision-making;
programme management;
support for local units;
management information for the Ministry.

The Centre's work is coordinated by a Management Group composed as follows:

the Minister as Head;
the Director General of the Centre (as deputy);
the Director-General of Planning and Finance (as deputy);
the Directors-General of each Department of the Ministry (as members).

Activities are undertaken on a project-by-project basis. Each project task force comprises a head and staff drawn from various of the Centre's divisions.

As an autonomous institution within the Ministry the Centre is not subordinate to any other structure but must respond to their needs. In the Ministry it must respond to all requests for technical assistance from the Departments and at service points at local level it provides advice and technical assistance to the Ministry of Labour Information Service (MLIS). It also proposes development plans to Provincial and local Labour Offices, on which they must decide in the light of the resources available to them. Outside the Ministry the Centre has also built up a cooperative relationship with other Ministries' Information Centres and is a participant in the establishment of the national data bank for the National Information Centre. The employment services now have at their disposal computerized information which enables them to provide a better service to employers looking for staff (supply and demand) and above all to workers looking for a job or for training which might prepare them for a job. The introduction of computers in employment services allows users to have free access to labour market information. Even so, it would appear that there is a preference for assisted information services because through them a valuable personal contact is created and maintained between job placement advisers, job-seekers and employers all of whom thus obtain a more effective service.

For the moment 40 per cent of the systems in municipal employment offices are linked by network, and are thus able to share information on vacancies and job-seekers within their municipal areas. The four cities which fall directly under authority of the central government - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing - have established city-wide networks.

The information centre employs 34 staff of whom 88 per cent are professionals - i.e. technical staff responsible for the design, implementation and maintenance of the system and the network, for software development and for statistical models of the labour market. Their status is neither that of civil servants nor of wage-earners protected by the Labour Code, but rather they are wage-earning staff working in an institution.

Staff of the Centre are recruited through public announcements and a selection procedure based on competence (knowledge, aptitude and experience). The Centre's staff must be competent in the spheres of operational management, software development or the installation and maintenance of computing equipment. Currently, there are 19 technicians and 15 junior staff with less than two years' experience, and their qualifications are at a high level:

1 Ph.D.;
5 with Post-Graduate Masters Degrees;
15 with University graduates in Science;
9 with technical educational qualifications;
4 Polytechnic graduates.

Staff must undergo on-the-job training or attend full-time training courses with a view to future promotion. The Centre's career development programme offers its staff training opportunities ranging from one week to several months, internally or in firms at home or abroad. In recent years five members of staff have completed post-graduate courses. At the end of each year all staff must go through a self-evaluation process complemented by group evaluation.

Impact of the policy

All the departments of the Centre may undergo inspection and monitoring at any time by the various inspectoral bodies (administration, budget etc.) Leadership and monitoring are in the hands of the Director-General. He in turn submits annually to the Minister a target plan whose progress is reviewed every six months by the Management Group. Finally the Centre's results are analysed and evaluated monthly and quarterly by the Division Heads.

The implementation of each project is evaluated by a group of experts. Certain clients or users, such as Employment Offices, can evaluate and choose from the products offered to them in accordance with their needs. The performance and progress of job placement agencies, for example, are analysed by the Information centre and the Provincial and Local Labour Offices, among others, on the basis of statistical reports produced by the agencies.

After ten years the actions described here have had a certain number of positive effects:

concrete outcomes for data banks, system management and the information network;
the freeing of Ministry and Local office staff from burdensome manual processing of case material and especially of statistical reports;
long distance communication through the network which has markedly speeded up the exchange of documents between the Ministry and local offices;
information sharing for all parts of the apparatus;
a marked easing of labour mobility (i.e. job-seekers) as a result of wider access to job vacancy information across regions;
an improvement in policy formation as a result of appropriate information processing;
contribution of an important element in social development;
actors have been able to take on greater responsibility through information sharing;
the availability of information to all those concerned has produced greater transparency thus placing all users on an equal footing in the face of the competitive environment emerging in the new economic and social circumstances;

The impact of recent economic reforms on the LSSMIS, and its ability to respond to the resulting expectations, has not been analysed.

Analysis of the activities of the Municipal Job Placement Agency in one provincial capital has shown, in contrast, that following the introduction of the information system the amount of information has quadrupled while the placement rate rose from 37.1 percent to 52.6 per cent.