The top talent in countries around the world have a new suitor: the Chinese government.
China has a severe shortage of skilled talent and, in a policy reversal, has decided to open its doors to talent from around the world. This could mean that the brilliant NASA scientists the U.S. laid off, could find new employment — and a new home — in Shanghai or Beijing……
(This effort is now extending beyond the) high-priority programs to encourage skilled Chinese to return home
… on Nov. 5. Vice Premier, Zhang Dejiang launched China’s “Thousand Foreign Talents Program,” which, for the first time, opens China’s doors to skilled foreigners to secure long-term employment in China. The Chinese government announced that it will allow foreign nationals to take senior roles in science and technology sectors and state-owned enterprises. They will also pay foreigners salaries equal to what they can earn at top paying jobs in America. And the government announced that it intends to offer permanent resident-type visas to foreign entrepreneurs.
This announcement was front-page news in China, and its importance should not be underestimated in the U.S. where these developments were not widely covered. …
Denis Fred Simon, author and Vice-Provost for International Affairs at the University of Oregon …. sees talent as the next big global race for driving competitiveness and innovation. The country is determined to win this race if only to ensure it can complete the goal of transforming its economy. Wang also explained that the Chinese see this new talent pool as the key to moving from a “made in China” orientation to a “created in China” capability. China’s future growth, continued Wang, will rely more on the new talent strategy, even as its past successes were built mainly on its population dividend and investment.
read full essay at Vivek Wadhwa’s blog.