New move to attract talent to Pudong

Overseas students and skilled workers who apply for residency in the Pudong New Area will have their applications processed faster than before, and faster than the other districts.

Starting from Monday, the city government has allowed Pudong to independently evaluate candidates applying for local residency to help woo more talented workers.

This makes Shanghai the only city in China to allow an area to approve residency applications.

Previously, applications to become a Shanghai resident in all districts had to go through the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

Usually, a person who applies for the residency must sign a contract with a local company or organization first.

“It will save people a lot of trouble so that more talent will come to work in Pudong,” said Zhang Yuxiang, head of the Lujiazui administration.

In the past, people often had to wait 45 working days before applications were approved by the city bureau. Pudong aims to shorten that time by 15 to 20 percent.

Li Can, deputy director of the Pudong Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, said the material people have to provide when applying for residency will be cut down to seven from 18, saving applicants time and energy.

Zhao Yuzhou, head of the human resources department at China UnionPay, whose headquarters is in Pudong, said the new policy would be a good start to change some of the problems faced by the company.

“UnionPay needs a good number of people with foreign language skills but language skills are excluded from the list of talent that the city issued,” said Zhao, “for which many people couldn’t get residency.”

Zhao said now that the new area can handle applications, she wished to see some changes which will help the companies target all kinds of talent.

Pudong is known for cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuit and biological medicine. The city’s human resources and social security bureau has set up the Shanghai Service Center for International Technology Innovation Talent in Zhangjiang.

The center will provide a one-package service for people with skills in these areas from finding a job to obtaining residency.

Meanwhile, the city government is also supporting the district to build the Pudong International Talent Hub which will provide more facilities to foreigners who want to work in the new area.