Region invested US$354m in 6 months

NORTHWEST China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has invested 2.44 billion yuan (US$354.8 million) in the first six months of the year to promote employment and entrepreneurship, according to the local finance authorities.

The investment has been allocated for subsidies on social insurance, aid to lowincome households and those who live in extreme poverty, and spending on encouraging startups.

Xinjiang has rolled out a series of policies to stimulate employment since 2019 as part of the region’s efforts to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. It created a total of 353,400 new jobs for its residents in the first half of 2019.

Among the new jobs, 235,000 people obtained steady jobs, accounting for 66.5 percent of the newly added employment in the first six months this year.

The region has seen an increase in employment in enterprises and the service sector. Four prefectures in southern Xinjiang, which have long suffered from poverty, provided new job opportunities for over 101,000 residents in the first half of this year, up 12.5 percent, accounting for 28.6 percent of the new jobs created across the region.

The region has allocated 23.6 billion yuan of agriculture-related funds to its poverty-stricken counties, local authorities have said.

The funds, distributed to 32 poor counties in the first eight months of this year, have been utilized to promote the agricultural production and infrastructure construction, with the priority being given to industrial projects.

(Xinhua)