By Huang Zhiling and Li Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-20 10:49

Nearly 50 firms from the State-level Chengdu Hi-Tech Development Zone in this capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province will attend a job fair on Saturday held in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

It is among many efforts the zone is making to meet the voracious demand for hi-tech professionals in this inland city.

Firms from the zone, including IBM, Alcatel and SAP, plan to recruit 1,000 high- and mid-level professional personnel at the Xi'an fair.

The 1,000 positions include a range of specialties in both hardware and software, said Li Minxue, chief of the zone's organization department.

Participation at the fair in Xi'an is part of the zone's ambitious plan to attract a total of 10,000 professionals this year, said Li, who will lead the Chengdu delegation.

To realize the plan, the zone will itself host fairs this year in Shanghai, Dalian, Beijing, Shenzhen and Wuhan.

The fairs mirror the development of the software industry in Chengdu, which employs more than 65,000 people, said Tang Jiqiang, director of the zone's bureau of strategic design.

Manufacturing is Chengdu's strength, but the inland city is thousands of kilometers from the sea, which means at least 50 percent more in transportation costs than for coastal regions.

Products made in Chengdu also reach other countries at least five days later than those from coastal regions, said Chen Xiaobing, chief of the general office of the Chengdu bureau of commerce.

Yet with the development of computers and the Internet, the Chengdu city government decided in 2003 to make full use of its advantage in scientific and technological personnel to build the software sector into a pillar industry of the Chengdu Hi-Tech Development Zone.