A slew of entrepreneurship and employment incentives and preferential policies targeting talented people have attracted professionals to come live and work in Taiyuan city, capital of North China's Shanxi province. 

"During the novel coronavirus pandemic, the city introduced discounted interest-guaranteed loans for startups, which eased the pressure on me of operating my store," said university college graduate Yang Fengfeng. 

Yang learned about the attractive entrepreneurship and employment policies through the website of the Taiyuan bureau of human resources and social security and immediately moved to take advantage of them to help his self-employed small business. 

The bureau recently increased and extended the period of subsidies, encouraged flexible employment and provided social insurance subsidies to those working freelance, according to Xue Xia, chief of its employment promotions division.

To date, the bureau has refunded unemployment insurance payments of some 200 million yuan ($29.34 million) to more than 4,300 companies and businesses in Taiyuan.

It has reduced or exempted around 40,000 companies' social insurance expenses to the tune of about 5.6 billion yuan and has moved to streamline employment procedures, to provide the best entrepreneurial and employment environment for companies and employees in the city. 

Officials said that apart from stabilizing employment, Taiyuan has also issued a series of support policies and measures to provide institutional guarantees for the flow of talent.

Despite receiving an offer in Lanzhou city in Northwest China's Gansu province, Shanxi-born Chen Yi, who graduated from Lanzhou University in 2018 with a doctorate, changed his mind. He decided to return to his hometown and now works at Shanxi Transportation Technology R&D Co in Taiyuan, due to the city's attractive subsidy policies for recruitment.

To help talent working and living in the city, Taiyuan has enacted and promoted related living allowances, rental subsidies and tuition subsidies and optimized its services, said Ji Zhenbiao, chief of the personnel and market management division at the Taiyuan bureau of human resources and social security.

Those with a doctorate like Chen Yi can each receive subsidies of up to 530,000 yuan when working and living in Taiyuan, with the level of subsidies now among the forefront in the country. 

In 2018 and 2019, Taiyuan issued a total of 224 million yuan in living allowances to 18,531 high-level talent in the city.

Officials said that the consistent introduction of new incentives and measures have seen remarkable results in recruiting talent to the city.

A total of 74,617 professionals including 7,372 from outside Shanxi province, and 331 returned overseas students moved to Taiyuan between June 13, 2018 and April 30, 2020.