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Youth entrepreneurship fund in pipeline

By Tong Hao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-02-27 18:53

The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) will set up a fund to help young people establish their own businesses, as part of efforts to ease employment pressures, particularly among graduates.

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"The fund will receive most of its capital from two sources — the central government and public donations. It will allocate between 30,000 and 50,000 yuan to each young entrepreneur's start-up," said Liu Fan, deputy director of Research Institute on KAB (Know about Business) Entrepreneurship Education of China, which is affiliated to the CYLC.

According to figures from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1.5 million college graduates may have failed to secure jobs by the end of last year. A further 5.92 million new graduates will enter the job market in 2009.

Local governments are also offering favorable policies to boost employment prospects. For example, Shanghai allows college graduates to pay registered capital by installments within the two years of setting up their business, while Hangzhou offers college graduates guaranteed loans of 50,000 to 200,000 yuan to help them start up their own firms.