Chinese entrepreneurship programs encourage rural workers to return

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Over the past seven months, Li Kangning, a former mechanical engineer, has been taking care of more than 2,000 chickens as part of his new career.

Under the call of local government to encourage workers to return home and start a business, the young man quit his job and decided to come back home and begin a new career.

The local government first helped him rent the land to build the farm and get the business license while the village herding authority provided him with technical support.

The local government also helped Li apply for a 10,000-yuan entrepreneurship grant.

There are five shareholders, including Li. He said what they are trying to do is something not only profitable but also sustainable.

Li Kangning and his girlfriend /CGTN Photo

Take the sawdust used as the chicken house ground for example. It's mixed with large amounts of micro-organisms that can decompose the chicken waste. So it’s environmentally friendly.

Li is from Santai County in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province of China. In recent years, local governments take measures to encourage rural migrant workers who left for cities to return and help them start businesses at home.

Many less developed regions like Santai have become a source of labor.

Wang Mingyu, the head of Santai County said that the local government has been working on improving the regional agricultural industries to create more jobs, building up innovation platforms, and perfecting infrastructure such as medical care and education.

According to Santai County government, more than 20,000 people have returned home and there are over 1,100 small and medium-sized enterprises that have been established in the past three years. That in turn created jobs for nearly 28,000 local people.