Pan Guozhi was a bit surprised when several officials with the city's human resources and social security bureau visited him at his compact fluorescent lamp firm in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province.

He runs it with several classmates that he graduated from college with in 2011.

"They asked about our situation and introduced to us preferential policies that young people starting a small business could enjoy. I had never heard of some of the policies," Pan said.

Soon after the visit, Pan's firm received a discount loan of 300,000 yuan (about 48,000 U.S. dollars) from the government. The business moved into a local industrial park which offered lower rent for young entrepreneurs.

Pan had benefited from employment promotion policies launched by Hefei's human resources and social security bureau this year. This was enabled after a meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, the country's leadership body, in Beijing.

Members of the political bureau meet every few months for a group study. One or two leading experts in certain fields will give lectures to senior leaders.

On Feb. 21, the lecture was about pro-active employment policies.Chinese President Hu Jintao was among the audience and gave a speech after the lecture.

Shortly after the group study in Beijing, Wang Shibao, deputy head of Hefei's human resources and social security bureau, attended a group study on the same topic organized by the bureau's party committee.

At the group study, Wang and his colleagues discussed the content of the lecture and Hu's speech.

Hu spoke of the need to create jobs and provide more assistance for small firms and to help young people start their own businesses.

"Some ideas in the President's speech were inspiring so we had a heated discussion," Wang recalled.

In a bid to improve employment, Hefei government used to provide unemployed people with training programs and help them find jobs. Inspired by Hu's speech, they decided to offer more support to people who wanted to start a business and for small and medium-sized firms so that they may hire more employees.

Pan and his firm fell into this category.

"The officials also asked my advice on how to improve their work. I was very impressed by their active and positive attitude," Pan said.

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