Shanghai introduces new plan to promote entrepreneurship and employment

Shanghai released a new five-year plan to promote entrepreneurship and increase employment.

The new plan was made as the city sees a boom in innovation and startups, with a higher amount of young people, people returning after studying abroad, overseas talent and out-of-towners starting up businesses here.

The situation pushes the city to adjust its original policies that mainly favor young college students and native people, the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau said today.

Meanwhile, the plan is also expected to enhance the survival of startups so that they can provide more stable job opportunities of higher quality.

According to the plan, Shanghai will help 50,000 people successfully start up their own businesses in the five years between 2018 and 2022, and ensure that the new enterprises create at least 300,000 jobs a year.

Meanwhile, Shanghai also aims to keep more than 12 percent of the population active in business starting and building over 300 incubators across the city, 80 entrepreneurship guidance centers in colleges, and 80 communities featuring startups.

To achieve the targets, the city will introduce supporting policies.

First, it will expand the scale of eligible beneficiaries for guaranteed loans from people with hukou, or permanent residence certificates, to business starters with residence permits in the city. It will also increase interest subsidies for business starters to lower their financing costs.

Secondly, it will integrate social resources and develop policies to increase social insurance subsidies for startups, and expand the beneficiaries from local laborers to out-of-towners with residence permits and overseas talent who are running startups less than three years old.

It will provide more rental subsidies for enterprises in the startup stage and grants for those starting up businesses for the first time that are run stably for a period of time.

Between 2009 and 2017, Shanghai has carried out three rounds of three-year plans to promote startups and employment, which have successfully helped 106,000 people start up enterprises and created jobs for 825,000.

The plans have also cultivated an inspiring entrepreneurship environment, increasing the rate of the population active in business starting from 7.4 percent in 2008 to 12.6 percent in 2017.