While Western countries' sluggish economies dampens investors' enthusiasm to draw big checks there, dozens of Chinese cities, with a fat wallets of cash, scramble for high-level professionals to inject new life into local economies.
The list extends far beyond Beijing and Shanghai, to second-tier cities that have been surging ahead due to huge investments. Now the upstart cities crave for well-trained professionals, who they believe will further boost their thriving economies.
In 2011, Changchun, capital of the northeastern Jilin province, launched a project called Wit-valley in its high-tech zone, a district set up to foster Changchun's automobile, pharmaceutical and advanced material industries.
After years of attracting financial investment, Changchun now desperately needs well-trained professionals and innovative teams to upgrade its industries and steer economic growth to a more sustainable level, said Sun Yaming, governor of the Changchun high-tech zone.
According to the scheme of Wit-valley, Changchun high-tech zone plans to spend 100 million yuan (15.82 million U.S. dollars) annually on the human resource project.
With that amount of money, Changchun plans to attract around 200 investors to establish companies there, as well as draw 300 experienced senior managers, and 1,000 highly skilled technicians by 2015.
"Changchun welcomes foreign professionals to start their own businesses here. An innovative team will be rewarded up to 50 million yuan as long as it can significantly spur Changchun's high-tech industries," said Tang Jidong, vice party secretary with Changchun high-tech zone.
But to achieve the goal, Changchun needs to do more than injecting capital into its economy, since its coastal peers have more money to spur their own regions, Tang added.
"The government is always ready to assist entrepreneurs to get financial support. For instance, we helped 13 companies to obtain a total amount of 500 million yuan of loans during the past two years," said Jiang Xiaoming, director with the finance office of Changchun high-tech zone.
The high-tech zone now has about 100 financial institutions, including banks, security brokers, hedge funds and micro-credit companies.
"We also know intellectual property constitute the core of high-tech companies, so we make much efforts to ensure that the intellectual property of every company in Changchun high-tech zone can be well protected," Tang said.
Zhao Baisong, a Chinese American, moved to Changchun in 2011, and was given 2 million yuan by Changchun government as the start-up capital.
"I will stay in Changchun, and already have sold my house in the States. The Wit-valley project makes Changchun a good place for starting a business," Zhao said.
Being one of the earliest recipients of the Wit-valley project, Zhao finally managed to build his own drug research institute in February, after years of working for Pfizer as a senior research and development manager.
Despite quite a success in 2011, officials working on the Wit-valley project felt no less pressure this year.
"We rarely have opportunities of rest now, because many cities have launched similar projects, and it became a fierce competition to get high-level professionals," Tang said.
