The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security ("MOHRSS") and the Ministry of Finance ("MOF") have recently distributed the Circular on Further Giving Stronger Support for the Employment-based Poverty Alleviation Policy and Increasing the Systematism Degree of Workforces (the "Circular") which will be valid till December 31, 2021.
The Circular maps out six policy-level measures, including "devoting great efforts to promoting employment locally or nearby". Further, the Circular explicitly states that occupational training subsidies will be offered to enterprises, farmers' specialized cooperatives, workshops intended for poverty alleviation, and other types of employers, if they recruit impoverished workforces and replace the training with actual work; enterprises recruiting impoverished workforces will also have access to social insurance subsidies, startup secured loans and interest subsidies. In addition, the Circular stipulates that, entrepreneurship subsidies will be provided on a lump-sum basis for personnel, such as impoverished workforces and migrant workers, who return to or come to the countryside to start up small or micro businesses or carry out individual business, when such business has been going on normally for over six months. Furthermore, the Circular notes that human resources service agencies, labor service agents and public employment service agencies will enjoy subsidies for employment and entrepreneurship services, provided that they systematically organize the output of labor forces.