China's Ethnic Koreans Benefit from Labor Export

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 29, 2002

China's Ethnic Koreans Benefit from Labor Export

Zhao Yun from the Yanbian KoreanAutonomous Prefecture in northeastern Liaoning province, 42, used to be a primary school teacher in his village.

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Zhao Yun from the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeastern Liaoning province, 42, used to be a primary school teacher in his village.

Nowadays, he is a white-collar professional employed by a firm in the eastern metropolis of Shanghai, the largest industrial and business center in the country.

"My fate came to a turning point when I left home for the Republic of Korea (ROK) 10 years ago," said Zhao, who is among approximately 200,000 local ethnic Koreans from Yanbian who have been working abroad as "exported laborers".

There are 840,000 ethnic Koreans in Yanbian prefecture, or 38.3percent of the prefecture's population.

Yanbian is the only minority autonomous prefecture in northern China, and it is also home to the largest ethnic Korean population outside of the Korean Peninsula.

Local governments in China have issued a series of policies to encourage labor exports and to protect the rights of exported laborers. In 2001, the prefecture enacted China's first local law on labor exports.

Eight training facilities have been set up by the Yanbian prefectural government in a bid to assist those preparing for overseas employment in learning foreign languages. Thus far, more than 5,000 local laborers have received training.

In Shimen town, Antu county in Yanbian, where ethnic Koreans make up one three fourth of the town's population, the local government coordinates with rural credit cooperatives to grant loans to local laborers who have been issued visas. More than 4 million yuan (481,000 US dollars) in loans have been issued for this purpose.

Air links have been opened between Yanbian and Beijing, the national capital, and the ROK.

The prefecture's labor exports have grown at 30 percent on an annual basis since the early 1990s, according to official figures .And ethnic Koreans from Yanbian are currently working in over 20 foreign countries including the ROK, the United States, Japan and Russia.

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