After graduation from college, Li Chengnan opened a steamed bun shop in November 2014 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province.

Entrepreneurial activity among Chinese fresh college graduates rose to 3.0% in 2017, approximately twice the figure a year ago, said a recent report on employment of Chinese college students jointly issued by Mycos Research and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

China saw 7.95 million college graduates this year, and more than 200,000 of them have chosen to start their own business.

Some people believe that this is the best era for college entrepreneurs, and many people have already succeeded.

Chinese bicycle-sharing service provider Ofo is a good example. Initiated by a young man fresh out of college, the company raised 3.1 billion RMB ($450 million) from investors in March.

According to Professor Yao Yuqun from the School of Labor & Human Resources at Renmin University, entrepreneurship has been incorporated into mandatory college courses. “It’s a prerequisite to improve the rate of entrepreneurial activities,” he added.

The Chinese government has also rolled out a series of policies to encourage entrepreneurship, such as an entrepreneur fund, commercial rent concessions, and tax reductions.

However, the report showed that only 5% of college entrepreneurs succeed, even in provinces with favorable business environment, such as Zhejiang. Among the college students graduating after 2013 who started their own business, only 46.2% are still running their business, the report said.

Yao attributed the low success rate to three major reasons: insufficient capital, weak management ability, and lack of social resources.

Experts noted that Chinese college entrepreneurs face a number of obstacles and challenges, such as an imperfect risk control and an insufficient entrepreneurs rights protection mechanism. They believe that improvements of institutional mechanisms must be made in order to find effective solutions to these problems.