Across China: Migrant workers return home as entrepreneurs

While his employees returned home to celebrate the Spring Festival with family, migrant worker-turned-boss Xiao Zhangjun spent the holiday delivering products alone.

The 43-year-old Xiao runs Tiannongbabu Agriculture Sci&Tech Corp., a company that sells local farm specialties online and is based in Liangping County in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

Xiao was born into a rural family and like many other adults from the countryside, he was once a migrant worker in southern Guangdong Province. He returned home to start his business after running an e-commerce company for a short time in Chengdu, capital of Chongqing's neighboring Sichuan Province.

As one of the major sources of migrant workers in China, Chongqing is trying to support small and micro businesses to help more workers earn a living at home rather than seek jobs in the increasingly saturated labor markets of the country's developed eastern coastal areas.

Xiao's main products are pomelo and organic black-boned chicken, two major food specialties from Liangping. He saw a business opportunity in connecting rural vendors and farmers with urban consumers concerned about food safety.

Xiao returned home in 2010 to start the business.

Xiao's organic black-boned chicken business now cooperates with over 3,000 farmer suppliers. In 2014, the company sold 12,000 tonnes of local pomelo with a sales volume of more than 60 million yuan (9.6 million U.S. dollars). He has also established a digital tracking system to ensure the safety of his products for customers.

Xiao is not the only success story in Chongqing. Tan Tiansheng, a 37-year-old former migrant worker, is now head of an electronic components factory.

Tan previously worked in a factory in Guangdong. In 2010, he returned home and used his experience to set up a factory producing micro transformers and computer accessories with the help of government subsidies.

"The company had only 100,000 yuan in registered capital, but the government gave me 37,000 yuan as a subsidy and 150,000 yuan in discounted government loans. That was vital for the business," said Tan, adding that he returned home mainly because of local preferential policies toward small and micro businesses.

After four years of building the business, Tan's staff has grown from three to more than 200 at present, while net profits have reached 2 million yuan.

Since 2010, the Chongqing municipal government has introduced a series of policies supporting small and micro enterprises, including strengthened credit aid, improved risk compensation, and better credit guarantee support to provide financing support for small and micro businesses.

In addition, small and micro businesses enjoy government support in entrepreneurship and technical training and expert guidance. Government departments have also set up support funds for small businesses.

The municipal industrial and commercial administration said that as of the end of September last year, 338,400 small and micro businesses -- about 80 percent of total private enterprises -- received government support in various forms, creating over 2.58 million jobs. In addition, over 11,000 small and micro businesses benefited from allowances for starting businesses.

Xiao Zhangjun's company was also helped by local government. The government gave him subsidies and helped him persuade farmers to reach supply agreements.

Small business development has driven the local market. In Dachang Township of Wushan County, Wang Xiangping, Communist Party chief of the township, said that in about three years, 245 small and micro businesses were established to create almost 3,000 jobs.

Now Xiao Zhangjun, Tan Tiansheng and other former migrant workers have returned to their hometowns, put down roots and become business owners. From metropolis to the countryside, they have found it easy to adapt to the rural environment again.

"After all, it is my hometown. If you view business as your career instead of a way to make money, you can get accustomed to it everywhere," said Xiao. Endi