Didi Chuxing has pledged 30 million yuan ($4.3 million) to create jobs for laid-off workers in heavy-industry provinces, a move that may help boost its ride-hailing business amid tougher regulations, domestic news portal reported on Tuesday.
The job creation program targets North China's Shanxi Province and Northeast China's three provinces, in line with the employment assistance program promoted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said the report, citing Didi CEO Cheng Wei during a meeting held by the ministry on December 21.
In the next five years, reducing capacity in Shanxi's coal industry alone will cause nearly 110,000 workers to be dismissed, news portal chinanews.com reported on November 30.
Qualified laid-off workers who can complete orders of more than 90 hours a month will be awarded 1,000 yuan by Didi, said the report.
This action can also help ease Didi's pressure from the lack of drivers following authorities' new rules that require ride-hailing apps to only hire local residents as drivers, according to the report.
This is not the first time Didi has hired workers retrenched amid capacity reduction.
According to a press release the company sent to the Global Times in July, 530,000 of the 1 million Didi drivers with heavy-industry experience came from coal, steel and other sectors with obsolete capacity.
