China will recruit a second group of 6,000 volunteer graduates to help develop impoverished western regions in 2004, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) and the Ministry of Education jointly announced Tuesday.

With 4,000 still working in the western regions, the total number of volunteer graduates will reach 10,000 in 2004, said Zhao Yong, a member of the Secretariat of the CYLC Central Committee.

The Chinese government launched the "Go West" program last year, which calls for college graduates to provide volunteer service in the western regions, where they are most needed.

Under the program, volunteer graduates are annually recruited and selected to work in the western regions, mainly in the fields of education, health, agricultural sciences, poverty reduction, and youth work management, for one to two years after passing the required exams.

In addition to extra allowances for living expenses and other preferential employment policies, the volunteer graduates can enjoy new special policies during civil service recruitment, said Zhao Yong, also director of the office in charge of the program.

The people and governments of the western regions highly praised the work of the volunteer graduates, which has benefited both the local society and volunteers themselves, said Zhao.

The 6,000 new volunteers will first be selected from those graduates who major in agriculture, forestry, hydraulics engineering, law, medical science and software, those from western regions and those who prefer to work for two years.

Though rich in natural resources, China's western regions are badly in need of human resources, as professionals there account for only 15.5 percent of the national total, while the population accounts for 28.8 percent of China's population.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2004)