Aksu Prefecture in NW China’s Xinjiang stabilizes employment through various ways

Aksu Prefecture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has taken multiple measures to stabilize employment in recent years as a way to advance its rural revitalization drive.

The prefecture has offered local surplus rural laborers technical and vocational training, enabling them to find employment both at home and outside the region. Now each county in Aksu has a vocational school.

An employee of Huafu Top Dyed Melange Yarn works at the company's plant in Aksu, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo/Xinhua)

A vocational school in Baicheng county is a typical example of these efforts. Offering 22 training courses, it has trained 80,000 farmers and herdsmen since it was built in November 2019, 97.2 percent of whom have found jobs.

Emer Tuniyaz, deputy head of Yafei construction material company limited, is one of the locals to have benefited from the vocational school. He was a farmer three years ago. “One day, I was informed that a newly-opened vocational school was offering free training, so I signed up for its construction courses. I’ve been working in the company since graduation. With a monthly salary of more than 5,000 yuan (about $773.5), my life is much better than before,” he said.

Baicheng county, in cooperation with the Wenzhou Technician Institute in Wenzhou city in east China's Zhejiang province, also sends several vocational school students to the institute every year to improve their skills. All of this year’s 18 trainees received training at no cost.

The prefecture has also addressed the employment of all its 208,000 rural laborers now in their 40s and 50s. Considering that these people may not be fit for work outside the region due to health, educational or family reasons, the prefecture provided them with jobs at agricultural entities.

Up to now, the prefecture has already transferred 240,600 surplus rural laborers for employment.

Besides, the prefecture has provided support for entrepreneurs. Aksu city has offered facilities, such as offices, meeting rooms, computers, network access and furniture, as well as legal, financial, accounting and evaluation services, including relevant instruction and training to all the 70 enterprises operating in a building designated for start-ups.

Xie Fei, who now owns two enterprises in Kuqa city just five years after her college graduation, was very grateful to benefit from the city’s favorable policies backing entrepreneurs. “I got a 100,000-yuan loan to start up my own business as a college graduate. And a 15,000-yuan subsidy from the government during the COVID-19 epidemic last year helped me to get through the tough times,” said Xie.

“We hope, by delivering comprehensive services to entrepreneurs and creating a good environment for them, that we can ensure that their enterprises will develop rapidly and healthily. Therefore, they will be able to provide more job opportunities,” said Li Yan, an official responsible for employment from the Aksu Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.