The Beijing municipal government announced Thursday that 20,000
college graduates are expected to apply for village official posts
in the capital's outskirts this year but only 3,000 of them will be
chosen.
By early March, 12,000 college graduates in most universities in
Beijing had applied to work as village officials in the
countryside, said a municipal government spokesman, which has set a
goal of allocating at least one college graduate to village heads
in each of the 3,987 villages over a period of three years.
With another 3,000 college graduates appointed at the end of
2008, the municipality will have at least two college graduates
working in a village on the outskirts.
Last year, 2,016 college graduates were selected from more than
10,000 candidates and sent to work as assistants to village heads
or Party secretaries.
Since June 2005, the Chinese government has encouraged college
graduates to work in rural areas with the goal of establishing at
least one college graduate in every village within three to five
years.
This year's "No. 1 document" issued jointly by the State
Council, China's cabinet and the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China, reiterates the policy of encouraging college
graduates and secondary vocational school graduates to work in
villages to boost rural development.
The shrinking job market in urban areas has prompted more
college graduates to consider working in rural areas. The
government has promised those who have three years of service in
villages priority in applying for new jobs in government
departments or large companies.
(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2007)