GUANGZHOU: Poverty-stricken college graduates who have permanent residency in Guangzhou will receive priority treatment while searching for jobs in the city, according to the local personnel department.

Some 35,700 new graduates this year are permanent residents of Guangzhou. They must compete with 320,000 graduates from other cities or provinces for one of the 70,000 job openings in the city, according to the Guangzhou personnel department.

"The employment pressure is higher for the graduates from poor families," Chen Dongmin, deputy director of Guangzhou personnel department, said.

To help poverty-stricken Guangzhou graduates, the department has enacted a basket of measures that will benefit this year's contingent.

For example, the department has set up an Internet archive for needy Guangzhou natives.

The department said its ideal candidate for assistance would be a college graduate with a permanent residence in Guangzhou and whose parents have one of the following certificates: a Guangzhou poverty-stricken worker certificate, Guangzhou urban citizens' lowest income certificate, Guangzhou rural citizens' lowest income certificate or a Guangzhou low income family certificate.

Qualified graduates can sign up for assistance at www.gzbys.gov.cn, or by visiting the Guangzhou Graduate Guide Center.

The center will recommend qualified graduates to the appropriate employers.

It will even provide loans of as much as 30,000 yuan ($3,900) to each graduate if he or she wants to set up a business.

Moreover, the center will inform poor graduates about job fairs and pay the entrance fees for them.

"We have received more than 90 qualified cases," Li Yanling, director of the center, told China Daily.

To date, the center has recommended more than 200 employment opportunities to qualified graduates, 26 of whom have found work.

Li said the center also recommends opportunities to other graduates, but poor graduates with Guangzhou permanent residencies are their priority.

She said she hoped more qualified graduates would take advantage of their services.

Chen said assistance was reserved for Guangzhou natives, regardless of whether they studied in that city or elsewhere.

Poor students from other places should seek assistance from their respective hometowns.

(China Daily 07/11/2007 page4)