The search is on for new talent, both foreign and domestic, in this city in Zhejiang Province.

According to a report released yesterday at the start of a Week of Talent, Science and Technology, three "positions of scarcity" have been identified: Laboratory researchers in universities, chief executive officers for the media and arts, and senior sports coaches.

Chen Anping, director-general of the Ningbo personnel bureau, presented the report, entitled Talent Scarcity Indexes in Ningbo, at yesterday's opening ceremony. It gives details of the type of people the province is looking for to help boost its economic growth.

Compared to last year's event, which featured more than 20,000 firms, this year will focus more on innovation to attract industries and individuals to the region.

The report said companies involved in the arts, sports, pharmaceuticals, energy resources and eco-agriculture were "quite scarce" in Ningbo.

Organized by the city government, the five-day event will comprise a range of seminars and presentations for businesspeople and academics as well as an exhibition featuring 1,700 companies and organizations involved in science, technology and education.

Located in the industrial heartland of eastern Zhejiang Province, south of the Yangtze River delta, Ningbo boasts a deep-water port that has the second-largest cargo handling capacity in China and fourth-largest in the world.

(China Daily September 22, 2007)