Chine promises 775000 jobs in rural area

by S. C.

China will develop a retail network of 510,000 express stores in its vast rural hinterland by the end of 2010 as part of its efforts to help jobless rural workers get back to work, a top Chinese government said today at a press conference.

"We will build 250,000 new stores in 2009 and 2010 and these stores are expected to create about 770,000 jobs," said Jiang Zengwei, vice-minister of the Ministry of Commerce.

The ministry launched a plan in 2005 to develop a network of supermarkets and express stores in rural areas by offering subsidies to retailers. The network is expected to cover 75 percent of the rural townships and counties. By the end of last year, 260,000 stores were built.

Jiang said the ministry had strict criteria for rural retail stores in terms of finance. For instance, companies based in the relatively developed eastern region must have registered capital of at least 3 million yuan (about 428,571 U.S. dollars) and those based in the central and western regions must have no less than 2 million yuan.