[photopress:mba_china_small_business.jpg,full,alignright]In China, less than 1% of the college graduates start their own business, while in Europe and the United States, the proportion has reached 20-30%. Also in China, college graduates’ chance of success in starting their business remains low.
According to a report released by the Ministry of Education in 2004, of the 97 companies established by college graduates, only 17% are profitable. The China Youth Daily reported only 30% of the companies run by college graduates survive for more than five years.
The information was released at the KAB (Know About Business) Entrepreneurship Education Forum recently held in Beijing. At the forum, experts from home and abroad were trying to think of a way to deal with the problem.
Before anyone starts thinking that this is a problem peculiar to China it is worth knowing that it is quite rare in most countries for graduates to go out and start their own business immediately. Mostly they work at larger companies — think of it as internship if you will — and from there they go on to start up businesses. China has, indeed, a problem but it is probably solvable within the universities.
In China, knowledge about starting a business is only included in MBA programs. Possibly that training needs to be extended to undergraduate courses although this is not common in other countries.
Professor Klaus Haftendorn from the International Labor Organization said, ‘At present, there are no other countries in the world that have so many business opportunities as in China. However, many business opportunities are neglected. This might be due to two reasons. First, in China, the infrastructure for business is not mature enough. The legal environment, the financial and investment facilities that are required in doing business are not good enough. Second, people lack a systematic training about starting business.’
Source: China.org.cn