Shanghai's Pudong Looks to Europe for Experienced
Managers
In the month of October, Shanghai's Pudong district will
host job fairs in Frankfurt, Paris and London to hire
senior level managers and directors to work in China's
newest financial district. The purpose of the annual job
fairs, which are hosted by the Shanghai Municipal government's
Pudong personnel department, is to introduce senior personnel
with global experience to more than 40 Chinese companies
which have set up their headquarters in Pudong.
Pudong is now Shanghai's financial district. Because
of financial and investment support from the Chinese government,
it has transformed itself from rice fields 15 years ago,
to the site of some of the world's tallest buildings and
China's financial center. The initial phase of development
was completely financed by the Chinese government, and
was initially greeted with skepticism by many Chinese
and western companies. Much of the new real estate footage
was unleased, but then the Chinese government introduced
a wide package of incentives for companies to move in.
Beginning in the late 90s, many companies which had their
China and Asia headquarters in Hong Kong relocated to
Pudong. This was followed by a wave of growing Chinese
companies, which wanted to situate their headquarters
in China's newest business center.
Now that the hardware (buildings) and software (people)
are in place in Pudong, the Shanghai municipal government
has decided to take an active role in bringing senior
level people to manage the companies now in Pudong. While
western multinationals have their own internal and external
networks for hiring and developing senior management,
this is often not the case with newer Chinese companies.
This is why, in many cases, Chinese municipal governments
take an active role in hosting job fairs to attract senior
talent from all over the world.
Pudong's goal is to bring in 1000 senior level staff
in 3-5 years from all over the world to companies in Pudong.
Currently, they are focused on hiring people fluent in
English, with strong finance, manufacturing and marketing
backgrounds, and who are able to manage multi-cultural
teams effectively. Salaries offered range from US$80,000
to $120,000 annually. Often, relocation expenses are also
part of the package. The positions are open to all national
and ethnic groups, not just ethnic Chinese.
Chinese cities also regularly host job fairs in other
parts of the world, including north America.
Shanghai is already home to large groups of foreigners
in the city. The single largest group is from Taiwan,
who are heavily involved in business and manufacture,
and number more than 400,000.
Shanghai's municipal government is also focused on developing
the city, with a population of more than 16 million, into
a bilingual city where the population is able to communicate
effectively in Chinese and English by 2010. It is estimated
that there are more than 200 million people learning English
on a regular scheduled basis in China.
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