The Hong Kong government has collaborated with media company Sing Tao Daily to host a recruitment fair across the border in Shenzhen targeted at mainland Chinese holders of Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) visas, the latest effort by officials to attract talent to the city.
Amid an emigration wave and talent drain that followed the imposition of a sweeping national security law and long-lasting stringent anti-Covid measures, the city’s leader John Lee introduced the TTPS in the 2022 Policy Address and relaxed the requirements of various work permit schemes. A Hong Kong Talent Engage office was also established to attract and serve professionals in the city in late October.
The TTPS allows graduates from the world’s top universities, or those whose annual earnings exceed HK$2.5 million, to obtain two-year work permit without first securing a job offer.
The fair was implemented by Job Market, a subsidiary of the Sing Tao Cooperation, and the Labour and Social Welfare Bureau at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Shenzhen campus on Sunday.
Ho Kai-ming, under secretary for labour and social welfare, visited the campus on Sunday and encouraged young mainland Chinese to find work in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong is not as involuted as mainland China. If you’re capable and have professional skills… it’s important to give it a try… Everyone of you has the potential to earn a million-dollar salary,” Ho said in Chinese, according to Sing Tao Daily. “Involution” has become a popular term in mainland China to refer to the experience of being locked in endless and meaningless competition.
According to Sing Tao Daily, the one-day event saw 3,000 visitors and offered 777 open positions from industries such as finance, business services and real estate. The booths of major bank HSBC, the MTR Corporation, airline Cathay Pacific, New World Development and China Mobile reportedly saw large crowds.
Lee announced in his 2022 policy address that the city’s labour force had shrunk by about 140 000 over the past two years before the policy address.
Over the first nine months of the year, Hong Kong issued some 100,000 work visas under TTPS and other talent scheme.
According to statistics from Immigration Department, at least 78.7 per cent were from mainland China.
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