Hangzhou welcomes Guangyuan workers
The Hangzhou government is chartering long-distance coaches and flights to alleviate burdens on enterprises in terms of personnel recruitment and production resumption at the beginning of February.
The first chartered coach with 52 migrant workers on board finally arrived at Hangzhou on February 13 after traveling more than 1,800 kilometers from Guangyuan City in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
On February 19, a charter flight landed at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport with 43 Guangyuan workers on board. Theses newcomers had already found jobs at Hangzhou-Guangyuan jobhunting fairs and were ready to start work immediately.
“The workers mainly come from the same villages while the enterprises are clustered in the same industrial parks. Chartering flights is one of the most effective and convenient ways to help companies resume production,” said Wang Jian, vice director of the Hangzhou Employment Management Service Center.
Some migrant workers cannot afford the expensive air ticket from Guangyuan to Hangzhou. The Hangzhou government has subsidized companies to charter flights so that they do not have to pay.
“Guangyuan is so far away from Hangzhou. A one-way ticket is almost 1,800 yuan (US$250). It’s too high to pay for all my family,” said Li Yong, whose family members were all on board the charter flight.
Job fairs are being hosted in
Guangyuan these days, offering over 10,000 positions in Hangzhou. Companies that arrange chartered coaches to transport non-native workers to the city by March 31 are eligible for subsidies of up to 200,000 yuan.
The subsidy is one of the measures aimed at alleviating the financial burden on companies. Other measures include deploying professional teams to recruit workers from Guangyuan.
The Hangzhou Labor Union announced the telephone number 12351 to be used to access legal services, receive free legal consultation, arbitration and litigation agency services for workers, and to find legal guidance and services for enterprises when recruiting migrant workers.
Hangzhou initiated its “pairing assistance” program with Guangyuan City in 2021. Civil servants and professionals are sent there, coordinating with local governments to improve social development. Meanwhile, Guangyuan workers have traveled in the reverse direction in a bid to solve Hangzhou’s labor shortage.
Guangyuan’s juicy fruits, fresh vegetables, fungus, and poultry are also shipped to Hangzhou. The Guangyuan government organized agricultural companies to promote products in the Hangzhou Wulin Constellation Center during the Chinese New Year holiday. The online and offline sales volume reached 1.1 million yuan in total.
Agriculture has always been a mainstay of the pairing assistance efforts. In January, three agricultural companies from Guangyuan signed agreements with the Hangzhou Lianhua Huashang Group. Sales channels will be created to provide Hangzhou residents with more organic products from the assisted regions.
The two cities are collaborating under the “Zhejiang Market plus Sichuan Produce” mode, bringing Hangzhou’s concepts to help boost the local economy.
Since the 1990s, the Chinese government’s “pairing assistance” program has aided impoverished regions. Hangzhou has supported the development of 11 cities and 47 counties in eight provinces, focusing on enhancing their economies, education and healthcare.