A newest policy says that from 2008, China will select 100,000 Uni graduates to work in rural China, which to some extent will ease tightening pressure that huge number university graduates put on city job markets each year.
Though rural origin graduates are not put in a must-apply situation, this policy do help them to find a secure social servant job and erase their uni loans, if they agree to serve three years.
No one wants to go in rural China. Not even students from countryside. Most parents expect children to work in Beijing state government in their best wish; if not available, they want university, bank, big state-owned corporations, or foreign companies. Certainly, working with farmers, is the last thing in parents’ plans. That is a reality that delays rural economy.
With too many university graduates, and too few city job vacancies, directing job seeker to rural China, couldn’t be a very bad idea. When more university graduates fit in, they will want to claim more rights and benefits on things such as less education fee, nationwide medical insurance, pension scheme if necessary etc.
I personall think thumb up of this policy. Because rural China’s benefit become a part of our business, when a lot of gradates have to live it for 3 years or probably longer. People in rural China are not ignored any more if this project goes well.
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Anil // Mar 24, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Sounds like a great idea! We have something similar in the USA called AmeriCorps although this is aimed more towards poor inner-city slums. Don’t know how successful AmeriCorps is though.
Anyway, I hope this is no Cultural Revolution Part 2!
2 Rick in China // Mar 25, 2008 at 3:56 am
It’s an interesting idea..but I don’t really know how well it will fly here. I’d like more information on their actual execution plan; social servant jobs don’t pay very well, especially in rural locations. I think you’ll agree Admin, most parents want their children to work in the Beijing government offices so they can profit from Corruption and Power (it’s not exactly high salary, it’s high benefit..come on :)) It’s not a must-apply situation, most of the graduates will likely be the same poor-performing students that would end up going back to their hometowns to work anyways.
I mean, in intention it’s a very good idea to try to actively disperse graduates into rural communities. The actualization of this plan, however, I think is not going to be met with the positive results set out for.
3 admin // Mar 25, 2008 at 6:25 pm
@ Anil, a lot Chinese posters on another forum Tianya, have similar concerns that will those graduates be able to return cities after serving 3 years, and do they have any benefit afterwards..
Best result for them is to work their way up to Beijing:)
4 admin // Mar 25, 2008 at 6:31 pm
@Rick,
Fingers crossed, I hope this project could achieve at least ease employment pressure. You are very right about what Chinese expect from government posts.
5 Anil // Mar 26, 2008 at 12:58 pm
“Best result for them is to work their way up to Beijing”
I’m afraid I must disagree with this. From my knowledge, Russia, India, the USA, France, and England have exactly the same problem (though the Western countries perhaps to a lesser degree). Nobody wants to stay in the rural areas, they all flock to the big cities. This has created tremendous problems for these big cities as they rapidly outgrow their infrastructure. The best answer, in my opinion, is to urbanize these rural areas and to distribute the growth into smaller cities (such as Xining in your case).
Finally, what may seem to you a local problem in China can have possibly unintended ramifications. In the US, the Presidential general election is often a battle of the cities versus the countryside leading to stalemate and slow progress (from a city perspective). And solutions developed by Chinese graduates in the rural areas, may have possible applications in other developing countries and vice versa (like my Indian roads anecdote) thus leading to faster progress for all.
6 Rick in China // Mar 27, 2008 at 3:27 am
Urbanizing rural areas is difficult and requires mad funding, plus, there will always be a huge demand for factory and agriculture, period, it needs to be located somewhere. The idea is to maintain management and infrastructure (organizationally) in the higher rent and higher pay city centers (kinda like “port cities” in old shipping trade days) and outsource company product realization as far out/cheap as possible to maximize profits. The more ‘urbanization’ of rural areas, the less profit by companies, no longer a reason to even be there, they’ll move to other rural areas until there are no rural areas left, massive inflation of whatever economy we’re in, suddenly vegetables cost 15x the cost (compare vege prices in China to USA, go buy me a bundle of asparagas!) etc..these are all very loose statements but I hope you get the general idea I’m aiming for
7 Anil // Mar 27, 2008 at 10:07 pm
@Rick in China - I see what you are getting at from a short-term business perspective, but I meant a more long term people perspective. Are you suggesting Beijing-Tianjin become a 50 million megalopolis like Tokyo-Yokohama (at 35 million)? I don’t about you, but I personally couldn’t take a 2-3 hour commute each way!
Plus, how long will “cheap” labor in China last? Won’t wages increase as living standards increase? And don’t large factory complexes already create their own mini-cities? Eg Foxconn/Hon Hai. Or do the Chinese not mind that sort of thing? Already middle-class IT outsourcees in Bangalore are complaining of losing their jobs due to outsourcing! Won’t China start losing it’s jobs to say Africa sooner or later?
Or am I just speaking in generalities again and missing the detailed picture
8 Rick in China // Mar 30, 2008 at 10:57 pm
@Anil
RE: “Won’t China start losing it’s jobs to say Africa sooner or later?”
Hit the nail on the head - there’s a reason I have taken annual trips to Africa (mostly sub-saharan Kenya/Tanz/Rwanda but I hit up egypt last month too :P) and quite frankly, I can see a HUGE amount of potential there. First of all - the English level is better than China, and we all know communication costs when dealing with international orgs is one of the main reasons company’s still avoid outsourcing any high-level work.
I’m a big proponent of Africa. In fact, I’ve recently discovered a new index (called Duet Victoire Africa Index) which I believe will be an amazing mid-term investment, and am toiling around on the 100k minimum investment :P. My speech to my company CEO about Africa included my personal stance: As soon as the water and electricity problems are solved, it *will* be where everybody wants to be.
I maintain that the power and water problems will be solved in the next few years due to technology, and that the government’s huge willingness to work *with* companies in terms of land and tax breaks trumps pretty much anywhere else. Combined with good people with good work ethic (seriously..) on a whole, most of whom have already got exceptional English fluency, and We Have A Winner. This doesn’t apply to every country mind you - only a few select ones, I mean, there is a significant difference between Tanzania and Congo politically!
9 Anil // Mar 31, 2008 at 11:46 am
@ Rick - Why no love for Botswana?? I thought it is Africa’s “diamond in the rough” (no pun intended)?
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