China has worked out a plan to turn its vast impoverished western
region into a promise land where millions of professionals will
be able to develop their skills in the years to come.
Under the plan,
formulated recently by the Ministry of Personnel, the government
has promised to create better working and living conditions
for skilled professionals.
Professional people
and specialized technical personnel are viewed as "one
of the most important factors influencing the success of the
exploitation of west China" which despite being prolific
in land is lacking in trained personnel.
The development
of human resources in west China through fostering a young
generation of professionals and training the existing personnel
in specific technical fields has been made a top priority
in the new plan, a leading official with the ministry said.
According to Zhang
Xuezhong, the minister of personnel, the central government
will build major cities in the western region to house personnel
from some of China's most prestigious universities and professional
groups, including Chongqing, Xi'an, Chengdu and Lanzhou, which
will then become human resource development hubs.
The ministry is
also giving priority to western areas for the location of
new post-doctorate research or study stations and industrial
parks for professionals who have returned from study abroad.
Financial incentives
will be offered to professionals from eastern areas who choose
to work in the west, and further subsidies will be granted
to professionals working in remote and poor areas, the minister
confirmed.
The central government
is considering giving a salary raise to government departments
and institutions in western areas that will equal or exceed
the national average, Zhang disclosed.
Zhang said he hoped
that by 2005, the end of China's 10th Five-Year Plan, China
will have built up an army of skilled professionals strong
enough to make a success of the country's western development
strategy and the region's rapidly progressing economy.
The total number
of professionals in western China will be increased from its
current level of 11 million to 15 million in five years with
the number of specialized technical personnel reaching 10
million, up from 7.6 million at present.
This should gradually
increase the ratio of top and medium-level professionals and
their national total so as to meet the demands of local social
and economic development, Zhang added.
To realize such
a goal, Zhang said preferential treatment as well as other
measures will be offered to encourage people to, and train
professionals in, the western region and to help absorb professionals
from China's relatively-developed eastern and coastal areas.
Of China's existing
60 million professionals and specialized technical personnel,
only 18 per cent work in the country's western regions, home
to 20 per cent of China's population.
"China will
attract much-needed professionals from other parts of the
country for key major development tasks and construction projects
in western areas," said the minister.
Meanwhile, Zhang
said, professionals in overstaffed local government institutions
in the region will be encouraged to work for enterprises and
rural concerns.
(China Daily 02/05/2001)
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