New York, NY —

The city is launching an ambitious plan to shore up Wall Street, and prevent a brain drain of its employees, by encouraging out-of-work financial service workers to do what Mayor Bloomberg did, and start their own companies.

BLOOMBERG: I was fired, and nobody offered me a job so I started a company. I wasn't going to sit around and do nothing or starve to death. So sometimes getting fired may be the best thing that ever happened to you.

REPORTER: The city is offering fledgling entrepreneurs cheap rent, and assistance in getting their businesses off the ground.

It is also targeting 25 companies, in places like China and Qatar, to get them to relocate here, using $30 million in federal aid for incentives.

The city expects to lose 65,000 jobs on Wall Street, because of the financial crisis.

The initiatives announced today are expected to save 12,000 jobs in five years.