An ex-serviceman can find an ideal job in a private enterprise just by presenting his Ex-serviceman Card these days in the Zhongshan city, south China's Guangdong province.

Su Caiming, general manager of the Yongan Transportation Co. Ltd., described ex-servicemen as "disciplined, dedicated, polite and courageous".

Ex-servicemen account for 40 percent of Yongan's employees, and all bus drivers in the company are ex-servicemen.

"They give passengers a sense of security," said Su. "Meanwhile, they bring credit to the company and also, good economic returns."

The city of Zhongshan has about 100,000 registered private enterprises, which employ nearly 10,000 ex-servicemen among their 500,000 total workers.

In the past year, Zhongshan city accepted more than 470 ex-servicemen, most of whom were recruited by private firms to work as security guards, construction workers and drivers, with higher salaries than those employed by state-run enterprises.

So far, more than 300 ex-servicemen have been promoted to managers for their superb performance.

Zhuang Chuanwei, general manager of the Mingyang Electric Co. Ltd., once a servicemen himself, said that ex-servicemen had a strong team spirit and sense of responsibility, which was most essential for a private enterprise.

"My company has recruited 12 new staff recently, all of them ex-servicemen," he said.

Many private enterprises in Zhongshan have established contact with local army units in order to take on more ex-servicemen.

In addition, a special job recruitment fair for ex-servicemen to display their talents is held in Zhongshan every year during the period when they retire from the army.

Editor: Wing