5‰ Chinese emigrant labor force brainworkers
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-03 11:46

China sent out 274,000 emigrant workers in 2005. Only 0.5 percent of these workers worked in the fields of IT, design consultation, education and other brainwork industries, the Ministry of Commerce's review said today.

"The 2005 China emigrant workforce cooperation review" analyzes the structure of China's emigrant workforce. The review stated that Asia is still the main market for China's emigrant workers. Japan, Singapore and South Korea employ 35 percent of these workers and contribute 40 percent of the revenue made by China's total emigrant workforce.

In 2005, China released certain restrictions of ownership for the companies wishing to employ these workers, but upgraded other requirements such as the company's registration time and capital. The new requirements have allowed more companies to be accepted and prompted more competition. Until the end of 2005, 1,900 companies employed Chinese emigrant workers.

China has built several emigrant labor bases, including Qingzhou (Sichuan Province) and Jianwei (Sichuan Province), to help facilitate the cooperation between workers and the companies. Until last October, the bases earned about US$100 million. Last year, China's emigrant workforce companies signed 4.8-billion-dollars in contracts, 4.25-billion-dollars of which were the newly-signed.

The review mentioned the emigrant workforce problems as well. For example, the government hasn't made relative regulations and laws to adjust and manage the emigrant workforce industry. This is an obstacle for China to widen into a broader international market.