Wanda to help graduates to start up their businesses

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group will provide 100 graduates with fund and operation sites as well as advice and guidance to start up their businesses following their graduation this year, the company announced in a news conference held in Beijing on Jan 8.

A total of 100 graduates will be granted a total of 50 million yuan ($8.1 million) by Wanda to turn their creative ideas into private start-ups.

Wanda will also offer 50 stores in its plaza shopping malls all over the country as start-up operation sites for free.

For the group, it was not the first time to lend a helping hand to the young budding entrepreneurs. In fact, Wanda initiated a 10-Year Plan on supporting college students’ entrepreneurship.

Under the plan, which was initiated in September 2013 and will continue till 2022, the group will offer 50 stores and 50 million yuan to 100 candidates annually.

In 2014, the first group of 10 beneficiaries from ten universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Fudan University and Tongji University in Shanghai benefited from the plan.

They started up their businesses in Wanda’s 22 shopping malls nationwide, such as in Beijing’s Tongzhou district, Guangzhou’s Zengcheng district, Songjiang district of Shanghai and Weifang city in East China’s Shandong province, in October 2013.

These start-ups include a wide variety of businesses, ranging from food and drinks to boutique and other retail businesses.

So far, 95 percent of them have proved to be a success, and expanded their operations, recording stable growth.

The top sales volume among these stores can reach 42,000 yuan for a single day, while the top monthly sales volume can run up to 300,000 yuan, according to the press conference.

This year, the group will expand the number of university to 31, and select 100 graduates from more than 1,000 candidates in 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

"The 10-Year Plan is an investment project in future for Wanda. I hope it will foster some business tycoons in 10 years or 20 years’ time. It is worth doing so if we can create several successful businessmen," said Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Wanda Group.