Hangzhou rolls out three measures to stabilize enterprise employment

As the Spring Festival is drawing near, many Hangzhou-based enterprises charter couches to transfer employees going to and from Zhejiang Province for free, while quite a few out-of-province employees stick to their posts. Recently, Hangzhou Employment Service Center has announced labor-friendly measures to ensure stable production of enterprises during the Spring Festival by encouraging employees to return work and stick to posts and by offering more jobs for employees.

To encourage employees to return to work, Hangzhou will compensate 50% of the fee for chartering couches to pick up employees from outside the province to return to work, with capped subsidiary of 200,000 yuan for each enterprise and 500 yuan for each out-of-province employee who covers social insurance in Hangzhou and sticks to the post for two days during the Spring Festival.

To offer more jobs for employees, Hangzhou will hold 100 online and offline job fairs where several thousand enterprises will offer ten thousand jobs. In addition, to ensure employment of personnel in bottom strata, Hangzhou will offer a number of public posts for personnel in difficulty and provide them with precise assistance in employment.

Hangzhou optimizes medical insurance service

To meet the demand of personnel covering social insurance for medical services, such as household sickbeds and home medical services, Hangzhou has recently rolled out ‘New Policy on Rates for Home Medical Service and Medical Reimbursement’ to optimize medical insurance services.

1) household sickbed will be tentatively charged at 80 yuan per time;

2) home medical service will be reimbursed by medical insurance to alleviate citizens’ burden for medical care.

Zhejiang sees increase in inbound trips after policy adjustment

Zhejiang province has seen an increase in the number of people entering and exiting China since the country removed certain COVID-19 restrictions on international passenger flights on Jan 8.

According to the provincial bureau exit and entry, from Jan 8 to 16, the province issued 68,471 exit and entry certificates, up 2,500 percent year-on-year.

Hangzhou issued 20,125 exit and entry certificates, the most of any city in the province, followed by Wenzhou and Ningbo.

The provincial bureau’s statistics suggest that most people were travelling for tourism, business, family reunion, or education.

Tao Dong, an officer at the provincial bureau of exit and entry, said that people can also apply for “green channel” services, which give priority to people who have urgent needs.

Russian Finance Ministry May Buy RMB Under 2023 Budget Rules

Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the Russian Finance Ministry will not resume foreign currency purchases this year, including RMB, and will do so only if it receives additional oil and gas revenues in 2023 beyond the budgeted base.

Earlier, the finance minister did not rule out buying “friendly” foreign currencies on the market this year, he noted, referring to the purchase of RMB. In this case, Siluanov said, the excess oil and gas revenues will be calculated using the cessation of supply prices initially set in the 2022 budget, before the suspension of budget rules due to strict sanctions against Russia.

RMB international settlement scale increased by 15%

According to Business News International, Kommersant cited a report by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) as saying RMB international settlement rose 15.6 percent, compared with a 19.86 per cent increase in October.

International settlements in other currencies grew by 3.9 percent in the latest month, the report said.

RMB maintained the fifth most active currency for international payments, accounting for 2.37%. In November 2022, the RMB ranked sixth in terms of international payments outside the euro area, accounting for 1.63%.

Earlier on December 1, 2022, the Bank of Russia announced that the share of RMB trading volume in total foreign exchange transactions on Russian exchanges rose from 3% in March to 33% in November.

Mascots join Deqing youngsters for flash mob

As the mascots of Hangzhou Asian Games, Congcong, Chenchen and Lianlian, joined Deqing teenagers engaged in the funny basketball flash mob at the 3V3 basketball gym in Deqing County, Hangzhou at 10:00 am yesterday.

Thirty students from Deqing County Experimental Primary School sang The Most Beautiful Scenery, a song for the promotion of Hangzhou Asian Games, along with the mascots on the site. Then, six young basketball players participated in a funny & intense basketball match at the 3V3 basketball gym. The wonderful match was accompanied by melodious rhythm and the flash mob enabled the citizens of Deqing to feel the passion and vitality of Hangzhou Asian Games.

“Asian Games Promotion Tour to Ten Cities by Geely”, a large-scale cultural promotion activity, has recently reached Nanjing to exchange experiences on how to stage large-scale international events and share the ethos of the Asian Games. On the way to Nanjing, the organizer specially launched the flash mob in Deqing, one of the competition venues of Hangzhou Asian Games, with a purpose to make the Asian Games penetrate into the life of Deqing citizens.

Classy Hangzhouxi Station

The second “delegation of observers”, composed of provincial, municipal and district party representatives and enterprise representatives, was shown around Hangzhouxi Railway Station Hub yesterday. Many of them were amazed at the tremendous change from a mere construction site to the magnificent building replete with modern technologies in a spacing of only three years.

According to the sources, Hangzhouxi Railway Station plans to set up a special area at the 6m mezzanine of the station building for the display of cultural relics excavated during its construction. “This is what makes Hangzhouxi Railway Station become a unique hub that meets citizens’ demands for transportation and displays cultural relics which connect the past of the station with the future,” said the observers.

After careful inspection, observers also proposed suggestions for improvement in many details. After simulating a wheelchair user by lowering down her body, Xu Qin, a member of Zhejiang Provincial People’s Congress, suggested that the height of the mirrors of the accessible toilets need to be adjusted. Wu Haiwei, the director of the Comprehensive Transportation Research Department of Hangzhou Comprehensive Transport Research Center, proposed that the most convenient parking spaces shall be reserved for online ride-hailing cabs due to its great popularity to ensure rapid diversion of the passengers. Wu Zheng, the director of Zhejiang Branch of the Design Institute of China Railway Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd., indicated that all the route signs related to Hangzhouxi Railway Station should be well connected so that passengers who were unfamiliar with this station could fully understand the purpose of the transport facilities (such as the escalator).

The suggestions of the delegation of observers were recorded and will be referred to for the further improvement of Hangzhouxi Railway Station In addition, to ensure a convenient, accurate and fast access to the waiting area and train boarding for passengers, Hangzhouxi Railway Station is preparing a digital “Instruction for Use” to give answers to such questions as how to go there, where to wait and where to grab a meal.

Immediate retail becomes new fashion at the Mid-autumn Festival

The data of a take-out service platform show that Hangzhou citizens’ attention for moon cakes soars as the Mid-autumn Festival is approaching, with search volume for “moon cake” increased by a factor of 18 and orders for moon cakes more than tripled compared to the same time last year.

The details of the orders show that Hangzhou citizens prefer three traditional stuffing, namely salty egg yolk, sweet bean paste and five nuts. Time-honored brands are also favored by merchants. With regard to the package, gift box and simple package are equally popular.

This year’s online consumption is much higher than that of previous years, mainly due to two reasons: 1) Consumers may enjoy discount by purchasing online; 2) Take-out service platforms provide faster and better services. According to many young consumers, online purchasing is faster and more convenient than the traditional online channels. Consumers can not only enjoy fresher moon cakes, but can also place orders to the taste preference of family members and friends.

Immediate retail has been different from traditional commodity sales mode and can meet young consumers’ demand for faster delivery of the commodities.

An 89-year-old roller skating idol in Hangzhou

A group of elderly people wearing roller skates slide in a beautiful arc on the ground in Hangzhou West Lake Third Park every Thursday morning. Among them, the most attractive one is 89-year-old Xu Guoming labeled as “Roller Skating Youth” with white hair.

Xu Guoming has been keen on roller skating since he was a child. After his retirement, he resumes this sport and has insisted on it for more than 40 years. The nearly-90-year-old man’s face is always with a brilliant smile, regardless of the difficulty movements like the “mini-train” sliding movement which features twist and turn forwards and backwards, double skating of “Flying Side by Side” together with his teammates, or sliding while twisting the neck.

In addition to health and happiness, Xu Guoming is the oldest member in the West Lake Elderly Roller Skating Team, and one of founders. His love for roller skating has infected the team members, and many of them regard him as an idol. Luo Chenfa, the current captain, said: “89-year-old Xu Guoming is still willing to participate in roller skating, and his spirit has encouraged more people to do so.”

Besides Thursdays, the West Lake Elderly Roller Skating Team is active in the region of the West Lake Third Park every day, attends the national fitness and greets Hangzhou Asian Games in their own way to convey the charm of roller skating to more people. From this group of “wind-chasing old boys”, we can see that, roller skating is not just a sport, and it is also the challenging spirit that goes beyond oneself and sets no limits in life.