Governor Liang Baohua told a working conference in Nanjing on Wednesday: "We should spare no effort to improve the state of re-employment in Jiangsu Province, which is still very severe now."

He said the provincial government plans to help create 800,000 job opportunities this year, including 200,000 for people made redundant.

The province is aiming to keep the registered unemployment rate in the cities at no more than around 4.5 per cent.

Most of the policies drawn up by the provincial government are concerned with providing preferential terms or measures to laid-off workers and to enterprises offering them job opportunities.

Under one new policy, laid-off people who become self-employed and enterprises that hire laid-off workers before the end of 2005 will enjoy favorable policies for three years, such as various tax reductions or even exemptions.

Another policy establishes greater flexibility in the implementation of preferential policies. For example, neighborhood-level processing factories will be able to enjoy tax exemptions, rather than only service and commercial companies.

Under a further policy, if some laid-off people start their own business together, they will be provided with some secured bank loans.

Another policy applies only to laid-off workers whose business has a small profit margin. Governments at all levels will pay part of the interest on their secured loans. The provincial treasury department will also specially allocate funds to pay the interest for qualified people living in five cities in the north of the province - namely, Huai'an, Lianyungang, Suqian, Xuzhou and Yancheng.

Between January and June this year, about 180,000 laid-off people in Jiangsu Province found new jobs, including 43,000 people in their 40s and 50s.

As of the end of June, there were 436,000 unemployed people registered in the province, making the official unemployment rate 4.3 per cent.

Another four new policies are concerned with how the provincial government should implement rules established by the central government.

(China Daily August 29, 2003)