Hangzhou's population increment in 2019 ranks first in China, which reached 554,000. In the past three years, Hangzhou’s net inflow rate of talents and Internet talents have remained the first across the country. For nine consecutive years, Hangzhou has been selected as the "Top Ten Most Attractive Cities for Foreign Talents".

Competitive industries build reservoirs for talents

Nearly 60% of the talents introduced in Hangzhou in recent years have flowed into the fields of digital economy and life and health.

According to the Hangzhou municipal talent office, among the college graduates employed in Hangzhou over the years, except for graduates from Zhejiang University, graduates from Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology also take a relatively large proportion.

"Students from the universities of which the names include 'electronic' are the focus of our recruitment. "Jiang Tingting, vice president of human resources of Zhejiang Merit Interactive Network Technology said that she strongly feels that the attraction of the Internet to talents driven by the number of digital economic enterprises such as Ali is increasing. Many interviewees ranked Hangzhou as the top three or even the first choice when it comes to the ideal city for employment in the future.

Apart from the two major industries, Hangzhou is cultivating a new engine for attracting talents.  Last year, Hangzhou issued a "new manufacturing plan" to promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. "The vigorous development of the manufacturing industry will become a huge reservoir of talents, especially attracting more engineering and high-skilled talents," a relevant official in charge of the Hangzhou municipal talent office said.

Hangzhou create an all-inclusive talent ecology

"I applied for high-level C talents in Hangzhou last year." Last August, Shi Dan, a teacher at Gongshu Vocational High School, won the gold medal in the hairdressing event of the 45th World Skills Competition.

High-level talents like Shi Dan are not unique in Hangzhou. Technical experts, gold medal interpreters, technical talents of manufacturing enterprises paying more than 500 million yuan in taxes, and online writers who have accumulated royalty revenue of over 10 million yuan in the past five years. These seemingly "unusual" evaluation criteria are now becoming common.

Professional titles and academic credentials have always been the basic standards for talents.  Hangzhou has found another way to incorporate market elements such as enterprise evaluation and social evaluation into the classification evaluation criteria for high-level talents. Hangzhou is building a "tropical rain forest" talent ecology with its own bearing.

Hangzhou retains talents in collaborative innovation

Zhejiang Talent Building stands on No 1508 on Wenyi West Road in Hangzhou. "Although most of the registered places of the imported enterprises are not in Hangzhou, the talents who reside in the building can also enjoy the talent policies of settling in Hangzhou, purchasing houses, children's education, medical services, etc." Xu Laiying, director of the Talent Service Center of the Talent Building, told reporters that the building had already listed more than 50 innovative enterprises from other 9 cities in Lishui, Zhoushan, Jinhua and other provinces, bringing together 336 researchers.

Hangzhou has introduced flexible talent policies to allow talents from all over the country to enjoy "city-wide treatment" and help talents to achieve success here. Hangzhou encourages the orderly flow of talents, provides intellectual support for the industrial transformation and upgrading in the Yangtze River Delta, and promotes the win-win development of the city. We can see the broad-minded and confident attitude of this city and the sense of mission of Hangzhou as the provincial capital city.

(Compiled by Xu Yuhong, translated by Tao Mingzhou)