This was the largest public recruitment for senior management positions in state-owned enterprises ever held in the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

It is a dramatic departure from China's decades-old system in which senior positions in SOEs were filled by official appointment, said Ling Wenquan, director of the Human Resources Research Institute of Jinan University.

Liang Meilian, an official from the Guangzhou Iron and Steel Group, said, "We expect to hire some young and highly skilled technical personnel through public recruitment."

The Guangzhou Iron and Steel Group has four senior posts vacant - a deputy chief accountant at the group's headquarters, a deputy chief engineer and a deputy chief accountant at its nonferrous group and a chief engineer at the Zhujiang Iron and Steel Complex.

To improve the efficiency of SOEs, China has introduced a series of reforms in the management system. But the present practice of government appointment of high and medium level officials has remained basically unchanged.

The 38 SOEs which have vacancies are all key Guangzhou industrial firms.

Most have assets of more than 10 billion yuan (US$120 million). The vacancies include deputy heads of industrial groups, chief economists and chief engineers.

Lian Weibin, a candidate, said that under the old personnel system, many capable people left the SOEs and were hired by foreign-funded or private firms.

Since the positions were advertised on the Internet in early February, 35,000 people have visited the Guangzhou Website. More than 600 people applied for the vacancies.

Guangzhou Mayor Lin Shusen said the practice is part of the reform of the city's SOEs. In the future public recruitment will be carried out on a bigger scale.

(eastday.com March 25, 2002)