Photo/Zhang Lingxiao (NBD)

May 11 (NBD) -- "Chengdu is a fast-growing city in China. I have been to the U.S. and Australia before, but I find people here are easier to approach and down-to-earth," so said GURUNG Tek Bahadur in an interview with National Business Daily (NBD), explaining the reason for looking for a job in the city.

Having lived in Nepal for 52 years, GURUNG flew to Chengdu three years ago for a doctoral degree in history in Sichuan University. Upon graduation, he is seeking for a chance to stay in the city.

The 2019 Chengdu Job Fair for Foreigners was hosted by Foreign Talent Research Center, MOST and co-organized by ChinaJob.com on Friday (May 10) in the capital of Sichuan province. More than 400 foreign job seekers attended the event and over 800 resumes were delivered on the site.

Surging demands for English teaching talents

The job fair has been held every year since 2016. This year, it welcomed over 50 exhibitors in hi-tech, education, bio-medicine and other fields, 52 percent of which are local enterprises.

State media China Central Television, national oil and gas group China National Petroleum Corporation, and other big enterprises offer around 1,000 positions in total for foreign talents.

More than 300 job applicants reached preliminary employment agreement with employers during the fair.

As the Belt and Road Initiative enhances exchanges between Chengdu and countries along the Initiative, the city finds chances to woo more talents from the regions.

Of all foreign job applicants at the fair, Pakistan, India and Nepal are the three major talent sources.

"I came here searching for opportunities and understanding the working environment of Chengdu," GURUNG said, revealing that he will most likely choose a position in English teaching.

It is noteworthy that among the posts offered, more than half of the total were language teaching jobs, which shows growing demand of the education sector.

China's English teaching industry has been booming for five years. Data shows that the production value of the market amounted to 104.2 billion yuan (15.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015 and the figure is estimated to top 220 billion yuan by 2020.

So far English teachers working in Chengdu numbers around 100,000 and a large talent gap remains in the market, according to Enfly Education, a provider of English teachers.

"The competitive wage for foreign teachers in Chengdu is motivating an increasing number of talents from English speaking countries to join the education institutions and universities," a manager from a job recruitment site analyzed to NBD.

Openness and preferential policies make a talent magnet

One of the most influential cities in southwestern China, Chengdu was listed among the top 10 alluring destinations for foreigners in the country, showed a report released in 2018.

As of January 10 this year, Chengdu has 690,000 foreign business travelers, and 17,400 foreign residents, according to local authorities.

When asked the reason for working in Chengdu, Antoinette Van Wyk from South Africa who came to Chengdu last July gave a simple but sincere answer to NBD. "I didn't pick Chengdu. Chengdu picked me. It offered me jobs. I didn't know anything about Chengdu before I arrived here. Now I like the city for its openness and fun."

"Chengdu's mild climate, relatively low living cost, sound infrastructure and preferential policies for foreign talents make the city stand out among Chinese cities," a local employer engaging in the pharmaceutical research said.

The provincial city continues upgrading its residency policies for foreigners.

Last August, Chengdu started to issue permanent residence permits for high-end foreign talents, offering a new path for foreigners to obtain residential certificate.

The city will optimize the applying process, bringing facilitation for the foreign applicants for the permit, related person in charge of Chengdu Municipal Development and Reform Commission noted.

NBD noticed that the Chengdu job fair this year also invited Chengdu Foreign Experts Affairs Bureau to introduce work permit policies for foreigner working in the capital city.

 

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn

Editor: Zhang Lingxiao