Beijing pledges job support for ailing light industry sector
The central government aimed to create 3 million jobs over the next three years in the country's light industry under a detailed stimulus scheme unveiled yesterday to revive the ailing sector.
The plan was concerned with 45 sub-industries, which account for more than 20 per cent of annual exports by value, including toy, furniture and home appliances.
More than 35 million light industry jobs are at stake, mostly at privately owned factories in coastal provinces, as exports plunge, according to statistics at the China Light Industry Association.
In the stimulus scheme, Beijing urged light industry manufacturers to boost employment by unleashing the potential of the rural markets to offset a plunge in exports.
It also called for companies to climb further up the value chain by turning to green products and slash costs through energy-efficient measures in production.
The government promised to ease access to credit and improve the efficiency of subsidy systems on certain manufacturers, such as a recent campaign to subsidise rural buyers of home appliances.
'While many other industry-specific boost measures mainly favoured the investment urge of major state-owned enterprises, the one for light industry is the most relevant to supporting employment of ordinary people,' said Yuan Gangming, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Beijing has launched about a dozen industry-specific pump-priming schemes since January as part of massive stimulus efforts to head off the country's sharp economic slowdown amid the global crisis.
The mainland economy recorded its slowest growth rate for 17 years of 6.1 per cent in the first three months this year.
Export-reliant light industries have been particularly hard hit by a significant retreat during the crisis as orders from the United States and Europe dried up.
Among 108 key products, 57 saw their output decline last year with 14 suffering falls of 20 per cent or more.
The sector has seen slight signs of stabilisation this year. Power consumption by light industry rose 1.6 per cent in March, ending a five-month fall and a leap from a 13 per cent drop in December last year.
But it would take painful restructuring to return to the good times, according to Mr Yuan.
'Exports would be gone for a long time and now a move further up the value chain would be hard but inevitable,' he said.
