Dandong boasts 280,000 professionals, but the city is now offering attractive subsidies and other services to attract a larger skilled labor force to support the city’s economic development goals.

Dandong has adopted a series of policies effective through 2020, including plans to spend 20 million yuan on a special fund to subsidize professionals and also support graduate school and post-graduate students. The city plans to offer jobs to more than 1,000 university graduates in Dandong.

Dandong already provides subsidies of 100,000 to qualified academics who have worked in the city for more than six months. The city also will provide a 110-square-meter house and a 300-square-meter lab to qualified academics who work in Dandong.

A job fair held on June 15 in the city attracted 11,000 skilled professionals from around China and from other countries. During the one-day fair, 5,000 employment agreements were signed. On July 1, 35 doctors with foreign education credentials were invited to Dandong, and 33 signed employment contracts.

Dandong officials said they plan to hold more employment fairs in the future that will focus on attracting science industry professionals and also hold high-level scientific forums.