Page 2 of 2 Chinese firms hungry for
talent By Olivia Chung
Education, some 110 special investment
zones with incentives for returned Chinese talent
have been set up in various regions.
By
the end of 2005, more than 5,000 enterprises had
been set up, ranging from high technology and
finance to consulting, creating annual value of
more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.28 billion).
Beijing also makes an effort to attract
overseas-educated
researchers, many of whom are
now leading major national scientific research
projects, according to Xinhua.
At Peking
University's prestigious China Center for Economic
Research (CCER), salaries for returnee economists
range from $30,000-$50,000 per annum, excluding
housing and other perks. A foreign PhD is a
minimum qualification for a job at the CCER. On
average, there are now 10-15 applicants competing
for every opening at the CCER.
Among the
major cities that a significant number of
returnees are heading for, Shanghai seems the most
proactive in attracting overseas Chinese
professionals.
In August 2003, Shanghai
launched an ambitious three-year campaign to lure
10,000 overseas Chinese to work in the city by
offering preferential policies including a
Shanghai residence card, which entitles the holder
to the same rights as locals and government
subsidies for those who start their own businesses
in the city.
By the end of November,
Shanghai met its target ahead of schedule and
attracted 10,203 Chinese from 110 countries and
regions to work in the city.
However, not
all returned overseas Chinese students are welcome
in the job market at home. This suggests that the
problem of human-resources mismatching, a result
of economic and social change, is becoming
increasingly acute and needs to be addressed.
After a few months of unsuccessful job
hunting, Ying, 25, who has a master's degree in
mass communications from a British university,
became depressed. She went for further study in
Britain soon after graduating from a university in
Shanghai in 2005, with the hope of earning more
than her home-educated colleagues when she
returned to China, but she now finds it even more
difficult to make her dream come true.
"Some big companies don't like me because
I don't have working experience or the
professional knowledge they require, while small
companies offer me salaries [that are] even
[lower] than a fresh graduate with a bachelor's
degree from a local university [would get],'' she
said.
More than 35% of foreign-educated
Chinese students find it difficult to get a job
when they return to China, according to a survey
of 1,500 returnees conducted by the State
Council's Development and Research Center.
A few years ago, returned overseas Chinese
like Ying began to be called haigui
(returned from overseas) , which sounds the same
as "sea turtles". By contrast, locally educated
people were called tubie (local soft-shell
turtles). Thus the term haigui suggests
that returnees are respected.
But now many
of the returnees are called haidai,
"seaweeds", or job-searching returnees, because of
their difficulties finding work. Most
haidai are those who have gone abroad to
study immediately after completing their
high-school or undergraduate education in China
and have returned to the country without the
overseas work experience or communication skills
employers require. They are treated no better than
local students. Some haidai have trouble
finding jobs because the overseas degrees they
hold are not in demand.
Employers in China
are more rational and practical now. What they
look for are candidates who understand both
Chinese and Western cultures, are fluent in both
Mandarin and a foreign language, and have overseas
work experience. A degree from a foreign school is
no longer everything.
Sea turtles who plan
to swim back home must be prepared for the new
environment.
Olivia Chung is a
senior Asia Times Online reporter.
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