Beyond the City Limits

College graduates-turned-village officials explore opportunities in the vast countryside By Wang Hairong

Beyond the City Limits

College graduates-turned-village officials explore opportunities in the vast countryside By Wang Hairong

(Left) FIRSTHAND INFORMATION: Wen Zhen analyses the corn crop in Huzhai Vilalge, Lankao County in Henan Province INNOVATIVE MAN: Ge Rongzu, in Nancha Village, Gaotai County in Gansu Province, has invented a new type of wheat-straw curtain for greenhouses(Right) BUSINESS MINDED: Cheng Guangjing in Dongzhuang Village, Lankao County in Henan Province, visits a local vegetable greenhouse

W hile most fresh university graduates in China aim to find jobs in the cities, more and more welleducated young people are starting to look for career opportunities in rural areas.

Cheng Guangjing is one of those who have chosen to work as a village official.In 2009 he began working in Dongzhuang Village, Lankao County in central China’s Henan Province. On November 24, 2011,the villagers unanimously elected him secretary of the Dongzhuang Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Recruitment programs

According to Xinhua News Agency, at present, approximately 200,000 college-graduates like Cheng are working as village of fi cials in China. Of them, 159,000 assumed of fi ce after March 2008.

To improve the quality of governance at the rural level, various tiers of government in China have launched programs to attract collegeeducated people to work as village of fi cials.

Some provinces such as Jiangsu and Hainan initiated such programs in the late 1990s. More provincial governments began to recruit college graduates as village of fi cials after July 2005, when the Central Government issued a circular encouraging college graduates to work in the countryside.

In 2008, the Central Government announced it would select 100,000 college graduates to work as village of fi cials over the next fi ve years. These college graduates were expected to work for two to three years in their assigned positions, and they are paid a monthly allowance.

As part of reforms to the civil service recruitment exam in recent years, the country has reserved vacancies for college graduates who have already worked as village of fi cials, workers and farmers, and the number is increasing.

At the end of last year, a new civil service recruitment policy was issued, stipulating that central and provincial governments will recruit new civil servants mainly from applicants with at least two years of lower-level governmental work experience from 2012.

“The new policy is a change in the strategy for cultivating fresh college graduates.And it will encourage them to seek jobs in lower-level governmental departments and in remote regions,” said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

The programs to recruit college graduates as village officials are also expected to alleviate the employment pressure for college graduates. China has drastically expanded college enrollment since 1999. As a result,college graduates now face fi erce competition in the job market, and fi nding satisfactory jobs in cities is increasingly dif fi cult.

Self-actualization

Born to a farming family in Henan Province in the mid-1980s, Cheng also once aspired to move to a major city. When he was a child,his mother told him to study hard and go to university, because under China’s household registration system that was virtually the only way he could avoid being consigned to a lifetime in the farmland.

Cheng succeeded in going to university,and after graduation, he found a teaching job at the Shanghai University of Engineering Science. His parents were thrilled that their son would have a career in a large city, free from the toil of a rural farming existence.

But in December 2008, upon learning that his home province, Henan, was recruiting college graduates to serve as village of fi cials, Cheng applied. He wanted to return to the area of his birth and do something for his fellow countrymen with the knowledge he had gained at university.

Cheng passed the screening and was appointed deputy Party chief of Dongzhuang,which was not far from his birthplace.

With more than 2,000 residents and little arable land, Dongzhuang was a poor village.After assuming office, Cheng visited all the village’s households and tried to learn what he could do for each family.

Upon learning that some villagers wanted to build greenhouses and grow vegetables but lacked relevant knowledge and funds,Cheng set out to obtain the requisite funds and technology. Eventually he raised more than 600,000 yuan ($92,000) seed money,which allowed villagers to build greenhouses.He also hired experts from Shouguang,China’s largest vegetable wholesale center in Shandong Province, as technical instructors.

Using government subsidies for graduates who become village of fi cials business endeavors and his personal savings, Cheng himself also built two greenhouses and a seedling nursery that allowed him to provide local villagers with highquality seedlings free of charge.

So far, 36 greenhouses have been built in Dongzhuang, covering a total area of 7.5 hectares and 20 impoverished households have signi fi cantly increased their incomes by growing greenhouse vegetables.

Cheng also encouraged villagers to begin more intensive livestock farming. He invited experts to instruct local farmers on advanced methods of breeding and raising pigs, cows,sheep, rabbits and poultry. He also distributed free brochures on cutting-edge animal raising techniques. As a result of his efforts, more and more villagers began to engage in animal husbandry. Now, the villagers’ total annual revenue from livestock farming exceeds 4 million yuan ($615,000).

Due largely to Cheng’s efforts, the village has also established its own fl eet of trucks and vans to transport produce, and a mechanism has been set up to help surplus laborers in the village fi nd jobs in other places.

Under these initiatives, villager’s annual per-capita income increased from 1,600 yuan($246) in 2008 to 5,300 yuan ($815) in 2011.

Since Cheng began working in Dongzhuang,he also worked to improve the village’s physical infrastructure. Over the past three years, more than 5 km of roads in the village have been paved with cement, malfunctioning wells used for irrigation have been repaired or replaced with new wells, and electric transformers have been upgraded so that the village no longer suffers from frequent blackouts.

Business minded

Like Cheng, many graduates who become village officials have had a real impact and improved the lives of residents in the villages where they work.

To give full play to their role in boosting the rural economy, the government encourages graduates who become village officials to run businesses and provides them with fi nancial support in the form of loan guarantees, discount loans and subsidies.

Across China, 5,916 college graduates-turned-village officials have set up independent businesses and 13,611 have opened joint businesses with other people.

Henan has set up a development fund for graduates who become village officials,providing them with fi nancial assistance up to 100,000 yuan ($15.384) to run their start-up programs. It was with support from this fund that Cheng built his greenhouses.

Many other regions have also implemented policies supporting the business initiatives of college graduates-turned-village officials.Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province that has 1,239 graduates who become village of ficials, for example, has published 23 incentive policies for these of fi cials.

Since 2010, the city has allocated 2 million yuan ($307,692) to provide discount loans,one-time business subsidies and risk deposits for start-up projects of college graduatesturned-village officials. Eight counties and districts in Kunming have set aside funding to support such projects and set up business incubators that offer preferential treatment including tax and rent reductions or waivers.

Kunming has also hosted a number of training programs, exhibitions and competitions for college graduates-turned-village of fi cials. Statistics from the municipal government show that 32 college graduates-turnedvillage officials have invested more than 5 million yuan ($769,230) in 32 business projects, creating more than 200 job opportunities for local residents.

However only a relatively small percentage of college graduates-turned-village officials have actually succeeded in starting up businesses.

Shi Changxin, head of the Organization Department of the CPC Committee of Shangyu City, Zhejiang Province, said, “Some college graduates-turned-village officials think that their positions are only temporary, and hope to become civil servants or pursue graduate studies after the end of their terms, therefore they do not want to invest in long-term businesses.”

A survey conducted by 54cunguan.com, a website dedicated to college graduates-turnedvillage officials, shows that only 20 percent of college graduates-turned-village officials chose to stay in of fi ce after completing their tenures, whereas 60 percent chose to take the national civil service recruitment exam.

Although most college graduates-turnedvillage officials’ top choice is to become civil servants and work in public institutions, only a small percentage of them, fewer than 10 percent in Zhejiang, will eventually succeed in becoming civil servants. Many college graduates-turnedvillage officials believe that setting up a viable business is a good career alternative.

Beijing-basedChina Youth Dailysuggested while the government should provide fi nancial support to the business initiatives of college graduates-turned-village of fi cials, the support should be selective and thresholds should be speci fi ed so that public funds will be used effectively.

Some scholars on rural development have also called on college graduates-turnedvillage officials to broaden their awareness of “businesses,” and become more actively involved in non-pro fi t organizations that help children left behind by rural migrant workers and engage in poverty reduction, disaster relief and other social initiatives.