Society

Law on urban residents committees will be updated

By He Dan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-07-01 19:40

BEIJING — China will amend its 1990 law on managing urban residents committees to improve their self-governance capacity, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has announced.

The ministry’s statistics show there were about 87,000 residents committees in China’s urban areas at the end of 2010. Committee members are directly elected by neighborhood residents.

China’s urbanization and social development make the legislative amendment urgent because management of the committees must adapt to the changes that have resulted, Wang Jinhua, deputy director of the ministry’s department of construction of grassroots government and community, said on Thursday.

The residents committees have undertaken increased responsibilities to provide social services such as helping unemployed residents to find jobs and providing nursing services for the old, Wang said at a news conference in Beijing.