The Chinese government announced on Saturday it will use preferential policies to help college graduates with disabilities find jobs.

Disabled college graduates should account for at least 20 percent of the new recruits of the country's disabled persons' federations and their subsidiaries from this year on, said the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in a circular on its website on Saturday.

"Our federation recruited four disabled people this year, well surpassing the 20-percent requirement," said Cheng Kai, vice president of the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

Posts at the rural grassroots level and in the public service sector, especially those which provide a service for the disabled, should also consider disabled college graduates first, the circular said.

The disabled college graduates could enjoy subsidies when they were seeking jobs and would be encouraged to start their own business, it said.

"Special help should be given to those with ear and sight disabilities as they have more difficulties in finding a job," Cheng said.

China vowed to create 300,000 new jobs for the disabled in cities and towns by 2010 in the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) released last month.

China has more than 83 million people with various kinds of disabilities, accounting for 6.34 percent of the total population.

With the help of government and non-governmental programs, 6,193 disabled applicants were admitted into colleges and universities last year, statistics from the China Disabled Persons' Federation showed.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2009)