This year marked the 30^th anniversary of the development and opening-up of Shanghai Pudong New Area. 

"Pudong is forming a talent system and amassing a talent pool capable of meeting its economic and social development needs," said Wang Ying, who has served as the director of the Talent Exchange Center of Pudong New Area for 26 years. 

Pudong regards talent as the backbone of its success and has been sparing no effort to solicit such talent from around the world over the past 30 years, Wang said. 

Great efforts in talent introduction 

In 1990, Pudong began to pioneer reform and opening up in China. At that time, it demanded serious attention. 

Wang still remembers her first visit to the Pudong Talent Exchange Center in December 1993, when the center had just been established. 

"Along with changes in the employment system came the need for market-oriented human resources institutions and a new talent service system. Thus, the center came into being." It was the high value placed on talent by Pudong’s that convinced Wang to work there. 

“At that time, almost every job fair held in Pudong was crowded with people. As the market gradually became more active, foreign capital, private companies, joint-stock companies, etc. continued to emerge. The center had to figure out how to increase the supply of human resources, offer a full range of services to incoming talent, and help them with any problems they experienced. Our talent services must keep pace with the development of enterprises." 

Wang recalled that in the early days of reform and opening up, Pudong began to actively explore a social talent service system. To this end, the center conducted a series of explorations. It was the first in the country to implement the personnel agency system to solve the entrusted management of the personnel files of migrant workers and signed the first talent dispatch agreement with the Shanghai branch of China Merchants Bank, which improved labor relations for more than 200 counter staff. 

"At that time, Pudong was making serious efforts to attract talent. Graduates were able to obtain permission to settle in Pudong as long as there was a receiving unit for them. Foreign-invested enterprises with a registered capital of more than $300,000 could apply for household registration for their employees." 

"The key to the success of Pudong's reform and opening up is talent." 

In 1995, the Pudong Senior Talent Development Company was established, and in 1996, the Pudong New Area Talent Market was established. In the following years, Pudong furthered market-oriented allocation of human resources and established a number of professional talent service agencies. 

Entering the new century, Pudong launched a "going out and bringing in" talent development strategy: going to prestigious universities at home and abroad to recruit talent. 

Breakthroughs in talent system reform 

With the deepening of reform and opening up, Pudong has begun to take off, and its demand for talent has become increasingly diverse, including technicians, innovators, entrepreneurs and overseas returnees. 

In recent years, Pudong has been implementing more favorable policies and quality services. 

In 2018, Pudong released the "Several Opinions on Supporting Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship to Promote Talent Development in Pudong New Area”, which clearly defined its goals to pioneer replicable practices in talent system reform, build a competitive advantage in talent development for innovation and entrepreneurship, and make Pudong a hub for global talent and innovation resources. 

To meet these goals, Pudong has achieved "10 firsts" in the innovation of the talent system, including establishing the country's first overseas talent bureau, implementing a new mechanism for recommending permanent residence in the free trade zone, loosening direct employment restrictions for foreign graduates, permitting foreign talent to work part-time in innovation and entrepreneurship, carrying out pioneering reforms for the approval of foreigners to work and stay in China, allowing foreign high-level talent to establish technology companies with permanent residence permits, pioneering a technology share market agreement mechanism for foreign high-level talent, obtaining the right to issue grand Shanghai hukous (household registration) for talents, optimizing the approval system for human resources agencies, and exploring the classification and evaluation of technical workers. 

Gathering talent at home and abroad 

Pudong has also accelerated the implementation of major talent projects relating to top-end talent services, cultivation of skilled craftsmen, and the introduction of urgently-needed talent in social undertakings. It constructed talent development platforms such as the Pudong International Talent Hub and promoted intellectual property protection, entrepreneurial financing services and housing services.

In April, 2019, the Pudong International Talent Hub was officially opened, which is a high-level talent service complex and human resource allocation hub. 

The hub integrates 80 talent approval services and develops a service platform for approving foreigners to work and stay in China. It also has the first demonstration public service window for talent in Shanghai. 

The hub also cooperated with the offshore innovation and entrepreneurship base for overseas talent in the free trade zone, the capital market service base of the Yangtze River Delta region and the China (Pudong) Intellectual Property Protection Center to establish a service linkage mechanism. 

The hub has carried out 148 activities relating to policy publicity, industrial exchange, and project roadshows, and has attracted more than 300 entrepreneurial projects worldwide to be carried out in Pudong. It has served more than 190,000 talented professionals at home and abroad by building functional platforms to provide public services, market services, innovation and entrepreneurship services, and online services.

Over the past 26 years, Wang has witnessed the development of Pudong's talent services from scratch. "I am fortunate to have the chance to lead my team forward in this new era of talent development at a department responsible for the promotion and implementation of Pudong’s talent policies." 

Wang said that many companies choose to develop in Pudong because of local human resources. “As Pudong is marching ahead, we talent service workers will further help attract talent from home and abroad, promote talent development advantages, and provide more competitive talent services. With professionalism, diligence and high efficiency, we will continue to serve enterprises, talent and Pudong’s development, and make new contributions to Pudong's talent business."