(ECNS) -- Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, has unveiled new residency, housing and income policies for college graduates, including a minimum income guideline, to woo more talents.
Under the upgraded policy, Wuhan will further ease residency restrictions for college grads. The age requirement will be removed for master's and doctoral grads, and set at under 40 for others. The time limit for employment will be eliminated, while restrictions on entrepreneurships, including some administrative procedures, will also be canceled.
The city also debuted an attractive housing policy. The local government will accelerate the real estate industry's supply-side reform and provide more low-income housing for graduates. It aims to "allow more college grads who get employed or start up businesses in Wuhan to buy homes at prices 20 percent lower than market levels or rent homes with rates 20 percent lower than market levels." Construction of a low-income housing project for college grads will begin soon.
Wuhan has taken the lead in setting a minimum annual salary standard for college graduates -- 40,000 yuan ($6,000) for those enrolled in three-year programs, 50,000 yuan for bachelor's, 60,000 yuan for master's, and 80,000 yuan for doctoral grads. The overall levels are among the top rankings in China, and also far higher than Wuhan's minimum monthly salary standard of 1,750 yuan.
A spokesperson with the municipal government said Wuhan has rolled out a series of measures to attract talents since the beginning of this year. A program was initiated in January with the ambition to support employment and entrepreneurships of one million college graduates in Wuhan, followed by a policy unveiled in March, which allowed college students to participate in the housing provident fund program to help them settle in the city after graduation.
In April, the residency threshold for college grads was lowered and a housing fund was set up to help with the settlement of talented people in the city. It also aims to provide more than 10,000 entry-level social service jobs to absorb college graduates.
In June, nine measures, covering housing and residency, employment promotion and entrepreneurship support were rolled out. Afterwards, the city conducted further research and made improvements to residency, housing and income policies for college grads.
Statistics show that the number of college graduates who had settled in Wuhan by the end of September went up 311 percent compared to the same period last year. Experts expect the new policy to help boost Wuhan's population, optimize demographic structure, and improve the quality of the population.
