The Guangdong Provincial Government kicked off a technical training program for more than 1 million youths from the province's rural regions Tuesday, the Southern Metropolis Daily has reported.

The inauguration ceremonies were held simultaneously in Guangzhou, Heyuan, Shaoguan, Meizhou, Zhongshan and Qingyuan. The program is expected to offer technical training courses to 1 million rural youths and transfer 2.4 million agricultural workers to non-agricultural industries by 2007.

The program is in compliance with the provincial government's plan to establish Guangdong as an affluent province. The plan expects to upgrade the province's urbanization level from the current 55 percent to 75 percent by 2020 and increase the percentage of urban work force from 64 to 78 percent.

The highest priority of the program will be given to young people from impoverished rural families with an annual income below 1,500 yuan (US$185). High school graduates who have no access to higher education are also the key targets of the program.

The program will give free training to them and help them find work.

To alleviate the burden on the finance authorities, the program will focus on two- to three-month short-term free training, which costs only one-10th of the fees spent on a technical school student.

The trial courses began in the six cities July 15, with 623 youths accepting the two-month training. After finishing the course, they are guaranteed to find a job in the urban areas.

The program is expected to transfer 2.4 million of the rural work force to cities - which means that if each can earn 10,000 yuan per year, they can altogether realize an annual value of 24 billion yuan. A total of 540,000 impoverished rural families will be freed from poverty.

For a province that is plagued by a severe lack of technicians, the program is expected to alleviate the situation greatly.

Editor: Yan