Talent hunt off to a slow start
SHANGHAI'S ambitious plan to turn itself into a ''city of immigrants'' attracting talented people from all over China has got off to a slow start, with only three people applying for residence permits on the first day of the municipality's new, relaxed policy on migration.
Under the rules, which came into effect on Monday, enterprises and work units are entitled to apply for temporary residence permits for waidi ren - people from outside the city needed to fill job vacancies.
In principle, this should make Shanghai one of China's most open cities - perhaps second only to Shenzhen - in the ease with which outsiders will be allowed in as residents.
''With economic development, we must adjust according to the market,'' Mr Zhu Shiming, director of the Shanghai Developing Centre for Talent Exchange, said.
''To make Shanghai a real international centre and a domestic financial centre, we must open up more.'' Mr Zhu expects up to 10,000 people to be granted residence permits this year under the new rules, in addition to the usual 100,000 who are granted residence permits annually, largely for family reasons.
Mr Zhu claimed the reason why so few people applied on the first day was that knowledge of the new rules was not yet widespread.
Most welcome to Shanghai will be successful corporate managers, those with foreign language skills and people qualified to work in the underdeveloped but rapidly-expanding service sector, from stock markets and real estate to restaurants, he added.
As one of the most densely-populated cities in the world and China's second largest city in terms of population, Shanghai has long sought to keep outsiders out to prevent its already crumbling infrastructure coming under further strain.
Like other Chinese cities, it has used the hukou , or residence permit system, to discourage outsiders moving in. Without obtaining such a permit, people are denied welfare and other benefits.
However, China's reforms are transforming the economy so quickly, Shanghai has found itself facing shortages of skilled manpower.
For example, with enterprises now entitled to engage in foreign trade directly, and with several Chinese businesses seeking to become multinationals operating overseas, more and more firms need translators, Mr Zhu said.
A few years ago, Shanghai had only a handful of real estate firms. Today it has more than 800, and the growing number of firms with foreign investment - already more than 3,000 - means the city needs more workers with foreign language skills.
But Mr Zhu emphasised the city only wanted well-educated people to take advantage of the relaxed policy. Once their jobs were finished, they would have to go back where they came from.
