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This article was republished with full consent given by Global Times. 

Experts suggest that attracting professionals from other developing countries is a key factor in China's development strategy. Photo: IC

When Dinesh Yenneti, 24, bid farewell to India and boarded a flight to Beijing in October 2015, he was looking for a fresh start. 

Having worked at a multinational software company in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, for two years, Yenneti had requested a transfer to his company's Chinese office. He found a home among other techies in Zhongguancun, Haidian district, a mecca for tech companies in China.

"I figured that it was the right time to make the move," he said. "My team in China was also excited to work with someone from a different culture." 

Yenneti is one of a growing number of international professionals from other developing countries flocking to China, a rising economy, seeking a wider range of job opportunities. 

With varied cultural backgrounds, needed expertise, and a willingness to stay and strive in the country, the well-trained workforce from developing countries, such as India, South Africa, and Brazil, has begun to gain increasing popularity among some Chinese employers.

 

Job seekers talk to company representatives during a job fair for foreigners at a hotel in Beijing on April 9. Photo: IC

Greater opportunities

The Chinese office of the company Yenneti works for assembles foreign employees from countries including the US, Russia, France and Germany. For Yenneti, the cooperate culture at the Chinese software company resembles its Indian counterparts. 

"The main common feature is that employees in both countries are hardworking," he said. 

Over the past several years, more Indians have started to learn Chinese to make themselves more marketable as businesses and cooperation between Indian and Chinese companies increase.

Yenneti first got interested in China at university, where he met foreign exchange students from China and took a course in Chinese culture. "Due to Internet-based globalization, Indians are getting more knowledge about life in China and are becoming more open to considering living in China," he said.

"We saw the demand [for Chinese language courses] grow from 2012 and have seen it grow by 20 percent year on year," said Nazia Vasi, the founder and CEO of Inchin Closer, an India-based language and culture consultancy that teaches Chinese language and culture. Vasi founded the company in 2010, having worked for three years as head of a tax and legal consultancy in Shanghai. The language learners at Inchin Closer are from different backgrounds, from university students to traders and diamond merchants to filmmakers and teachers.

Some Indians learn Chinese to find more opportunities in China, which offers Indians many different kinds of job opportunities, especially in the technology and manufacturing sectors.

"Indians who can speak Chinese are also in high demand in India's major cities - New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, where many Chinese companies are staffing their offices with professionals who can communicate in Chinese," said Vasi.

Better pay and benefits

To attract the high-level international talent that China requires, the government and some enterprises offer targeted foreign employees higher pay packages and more favorable visa policies.

A 2015 report in the India-based publication Economic Times said Chinese drug companies were increasingly hiring senior scientists from Indian companies "for their strength in documentation and English language." A high-level Indian scientist was quoted in the article as saying he "could not refuse the hefty salary and facilities offered two years back by his current employer on the east coast of China near Shanghai."

Besides the higher pay, Indian talents are also drawn to China's "robust urban and manufacturing infrastructure," the report said. 

Professionals in demand are also provided with easier access to Chinese permanent residency permits for foreigners, which are difficult to gain. A highly-placed Indian employee in the research and development department of Chinese IT company Lenovo's Beijing office had gone through a "green channel" and received a Chinese permanent residency card in May, according to the website of Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park.

Yenneti also has a good payment package. His salary in China is more than twice that of Bangalore, adjusted for the cost of living in Beijing. But for young people like him, money is not the primary factor. "Right now, my main goal is to get good experience, and the project I have in China has a lot of new things to learn," he said. 

Stable society and friendly people 

Liu Guofu, an immigration law professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said as a rising economy, China provides a lot of career opportunities to global talents. "China is appealing to foreign talents in other developing countries because of its political stability, comparatively rapid economic growth and Chinese people's kindness and friendliness with expats," he said.

For South African Emelia Schmidt, who came to Beijing six months ago to work as an English teacher at a public school, China is a country where she could put her education to good use in a secure, stable job and a safe work environment.

Schmidt, 27, left South Africa because of its high crime rate and difficulties in securing a good job. "China is an attractive country for South Africans. Many South Africans who move to China are highly educated and qualified," she said. 

Schmidt achieved a law degree at a university in the Netherlands but failed to secure a job which was suited to the level of her education there. 

"As opposed to developed countries where job opportunities are limited, the options to work in China are broad," she said. 

The Chinese society's inclusiveness is another attraction. Schmidt had worked in South Korea, but she was not comfortable with South Koreans who she said tend "to try to mold foreigners into what they want and expect you to become Korean." 

"Chinese people are more accepting and accommodating to the fact that we are foreign," she said.

A neglected talent pool?

With the aim of achieving economic development and transformation, the Chinese government has been increasingly open to international talents over the past few years. 

In Liu's opinion, while high-level foreign talents from developed countries are the key and targeted workforce in the country's development strategy, it could be more productive if China shifts its focus to lure more professionals from developing countries.

"It is decided by China's current economic development," said Liu. On the international talent immigrating map, people would sensibly seek to relocate to a region with a higher standard of living than where they live. So, it could be difficult for China to charm individuals whose expertise is in high demand from developed countries, especially places like the US and Germany.

He said higher salaries and research grants might be appealing in the beginning, but talents from developed countries may later find that the living environment, such as the education system and air quality, is not comparable with their home countries and choose to leave. 

Liu said the purpose of China's talent strategy is to attract foreign talents and get them to stay in China long-term to help Chinese companies grow and develop.

Another approach, he said, is attracting ethnic Chinese living in the developed countries to return to China. He said many developing countries, including Mexico and Turkey, use this strategy. 

Market demand 

Liu said the pay for foreign talents, regardless of whether they are from developed or developing countries, should be decided by market demand. 

"The companies are clear on what type of talents and expertise they need," he said.

Eric Liu, a consultant at Foreign HR, a recruitment firm for foreigners in China, said despite the fact that, in general, international talents from developed countries are more competitive, China offers a broad range of occupations that are suitable for professionals from different countries. 

"In terms of advising and assisting a company to be more international, talents from developed countries are more helpful," said Eric Liu. 

"But there are other occupations available in the service industry or sales and translating jobs. It depends on the employers' different demands." 

Yenneti plans to work in Beijing for at least another year before deciding if he wants to stay for longer.

For English-speaking professionals like Yenneti, moving to the US or the UK could have been easier in terms of overcoming barriers such as language and food. But he believes the challenges he encountered when he moved to China affected him "in a unique way and made him become more open-minded and have more diversified perspectives about various things in life." 

To see the original article, check out this link: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1009917.shtml

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