Zhang Xiaojian, vice-minister of Labor and Social Security, said Mar. 29 that this year his ministry has set a target of training 300,000 people for starting undertakings, with a pass rate of training reaching 80 percent and a success rate of 50 percent after training.

Speaking at a meeting on summing up the final work of pilot project for promoting China's urban employment, Zhang said that the ministry was prepared this year to extend the training program to colleges and universities and rural areas for the transfer of labor force there. This is aimed at giving full play to the overall effect of the reemployment supporting policy, such as giving funding subsidies and petty secured loans to training of personnel for reemployment, and at achieving better results in promoting employment and reemployment through training of personnel for starting businesses.

To help the laid-off workers to start a new undertaking and seek new jobs for themselves, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and International Labor Organization jointly organized and implemented China's Urban Employment Promotion Experimental Project in 2001. Currently, this pilot project has been put into practice on a trial basis in Zhangjiakou, Baotou, Jilin, Shijiazhuang, Tongliao and Changchun cities. Zhang disclosed that the pilot project has achieved remarkable success in the past few years.

According to available statistics, altogether 400,000 people nationwide were organized last year to participate in the training program, of whom, 170,000 people, or 42 percent of the total, participated in training in the SYB (starting your business) method employed by various localities; the SYB success rate after training reached 60 percent, creating more than 590,000 new work posts in China.

By People's Daily Online