China to allocate 100 billion yuan for job losses from capacity cuts

China will establish a 100 billion yuan fund to assist those who are made redundant as a result of industrial restructuring. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - China will establish a 100 billion yuan ($15.3 billion) fund to assist those who are made redundant as a result of industrial restructuring, an official said Thursday.

Allocated over two years, the fund will cover training and job seeking, said Feng Fei, vice minister of industry and information technology, at a press conference.

The processes of dealing with poor-performing "zombie companies," and undertaking mergers and acquisitions mean that job losses will be inevitable. Thus, re-employing workers will be a major task, Feng said.

Cutting overcapacity was listed as one of the five major tasks in supply-side structural reform along with destocking, deleveraging, reducing costs and shoring up weak growth areas.

The government has stepped up efforts to slash excess production capacity in saturated sectors, especially steel and coal. From 2011 to 2015, 91 million tons of outdated capacity in the iron industry and 94.8 million tons in the steel industry were eliminated.