Cities must exercise caution in talent hunt

Editor's note: Some cities, including Wuhan, Chengdu and Tianjin, as well as Hainan province have joined the competition for talents, sparking concerns that the heated competition may distort the aims of the hunt for talents. Three experts share their views on the issue with China Daily's Liu Jianna. Excerpts follow:

Market should play a bigger role

Li Jianmin, a professor at the Institute of Population and Development, Nankai University

It seems some smaller cities in China have suddenly realized the indispensability of people, especially talented people, to their cities' development. But these cities' talent-attracting policies look the same: similar sets of introduction standards, preferential policies on housing and hukou (household registration). Which is weird, as different cities should have different development plans, and thus different policies for luring talents.

What's more alarming is that in the increasingly fierce battle for talents local governments are playing a leading role while market demands are not given enough attention. Yet it is the demand of the local market that should determine the number of job openings and the direction of local industrial development.

What the governments could and should do is to reduce administrative restraints on talent introduction and provide social security for those talents, that is, offer quality administrative service, rather than setting difficult targets for introducing a certain number of talents in a certain number of years.

If the terminology is not corrected, the promises cannot be transformed into action. Likewise, the market demand should be allowed to play a bigger role in the introduction of talents.

Better talent-attracting programs needed

Liu Xiangbing, president of China University of Labor Relations

The competition for talents is raging not only among first-and second-teir cities, but also third-tier cities. The public, particularly graduates, have generally welcomed this competition, as it promises to brighten their career prospects.

Generally speaking, this scramble for talents is a good sign, because it highlights the local governments' awareness of the importance of talents to economic development. Yet more discretion and vision are needed to ensure the talent-introduction program is scientific and rational. Most cities have set a standard mainly based on academic qualifications, and professional and technical diplomas, which could prevent the talents without these attributes, but badly needed in those cities, from qualifying as real talents.

Thus local governments should work out a more refined and scientific program to attract talents. In other words, the local talent-introduction program should match the local conditions.

Luring talents while curbing realty prices

Cai Yifei, a researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The competition for talents unfolding in some new first-and second-tier cities is quite encouraging. It not only shows the local governments' eagerness to promote economic development, but also signifies that economic development in these cities has entered a new phase where the demand for talents has significantly increased.

But since housing prices in some of these cities, Chengdu for example, have also sharply risen recently, some people say the talent-attracting program has led to the loosening of home-purchase restrictions and thus pushed up property prices. They also accuse the local governments of trying to covertly boost the real estate market.

People holding such a view have put the cart before the horse. Many talents in high-tech industries in big cities are not qualified to buy houses due to the home-purchase restrictions, which has significantly lowered their quality of life and reduced the attractions of big cities. Therefore, if those new first-and second-tier cities want to attract and keep talents, they must find a way to better accommodate them. In that sense, it is necessary to relax the property-purchase restrictions for talents.

As to the housing price rises in some cities, both the pros and cons have to be taken into consideration. The flocking of talents to a city will help fuel economic development and benefit all the residents, as well as help raise the consumption level and drive up property prices. So even though talents facilitate development and presage a brighter future for all, the local governments should walk a fine line between attracting talents and curbing housing prices.