Referring to a plan that encourages college students to voluntarily work in China's west Thursday in Beijing, President Hu Jintao said that they are precious human resources, and going to the west will not only create more job opportunities for them, but also facilitate the region's development.

He urged concerned departments to introduce preferential policies and establish a sound working mechanism to guide and help graduates to seek employment in grass-roots work or in the west.

"It's a good way to exercise one's will power and increase one's knowledge, which will contribute to China's construction of a well-off society," Hu said.

The plan encouraging attention to western regions was jointly launched by the Central Committee of Communist Youth League, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Personnel in June 2003.

It has so far sent 24,929 college graduates to more than 300 economically depressed counties and towns in the west.

The number of college graduates increased from over one million in 1999 to 3.38 million in 2005. As a result, many graduates have failed to find jobs in recent years in big cities while higher-educated professionals are badly needed in the country's comparatively backward areas, particularly the west of China.

China's State Council issued a circular recently to encourage college graduates to seek jobs in grass-roots organizations to release the employment pressure in big cities and to satisfy the demand for professionals in poor areas.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2005)