Fund aids budding business people
By Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-05-23 05:07

Budding entrepreneurs keen to set up their own businesses but short of cash can now apply for money provided by the Youth Business China fund.

The fund is a project launched in 2003 by the All-China Youth Federation focused on helping young people start their own business and it is now moving to new offices under a partnership between the federation and the United Nations Youth Employment Network.

The story of the programme's first success was told at the International Forum on Youth Employment and Harmonious Society on Friday in Beijing.

Liu Jiangang, 27, graduated from Tongji University in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in electronics information.

After quitting his first job as a customer manager in a Shanghai-based company, Liu applied to the fund with his idea of a housekeeping business.

On November 25, 2003, Liu was offered 60,000 yuan (US$7,200) to start the business and became the project's first beneficiary.

Liu was also provided with a tutor, Zhu Jianxin, president of Shanghai College of Science and Technology, who is there to guide the young man and his enterprise.

In April 2004, Liu launched the housekeeping company in Shanghai. Four months later, his company began to turn a profit and he starting making monthly repayments to the fund.

"The issue of youth employment in China is becoming more and more conspicuous," said Zhou Qiang, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, at the forum.

According to the forum, China is home to 283 million young people aged between 15 and 29, representing 23.3 per cent of the total population.

"Young people are not only the future but also an existing power," Zhou said.

"If we help them to win a better future, they will return us a better world."

The forum also announced the establishment of the UN Youth Employment Network (YEN) Office China.

"The office will serve as a platform to introduce the successful models and advanced experiences of other countries to China and collaborate with international organizations to carry out youth employment programmes in an effort to help China's young people find jobs," said Dong Xia, project director of YEN's China office.

(China Daily 05/23/2005 page2)

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