Hangzhou's power to attract overseas talent is increasing

The eastern city of Hangzhou, which is the base of e-commerce giant Alibaba and was the site for last year's G20 Summit, has shown growing appeal to overseas talent, although Shanghai and Beijing remain the top globalized job markets on the Chinese mainland, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The ratio between overseas Chinese who went to Hangzhou for work last year and those who left the city tops all mainland cities, according to the report, which was based on last year's user data of LinkedIn, a US-based networking website. Hangzhou got a score of 99.25 for this indicator, while Shanghai was given 93.44 and Beijing 77.38.

Hangzhou also ranked third in offering the most desirable job opportunities, following Beijing and Shanghai. LinkedIn defined the Top 50 jobs - such as data engineer and business analyst - that are desired by people around the world based on factors including salary, promotion opportunities and job openings.

Wang Di, vice-president of LinkedIn China, believed the rise of Hangzhou in attracting global talent is relevant to the city's overall plan to further internationalize.

Hangzhou's government put forward a plan in July to make the city more international, with a key goal of building it into a business incubation and innovation center based on its advantages in the internet industry.

"The G20 Summit held in September also promoted Hangzhou on the world stage," he said. "The 2022 Asian Games will also be held in the city. So the infrastructure has been, and will be further, upgraded."

However, despite Hangzhou's rapidly rising attraction, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen are still the top three mainland cities in terms of globalized job market.

The report marks the first time that LinkedIn has issued such a ranking of mainland cities regarding globalized job market. Indicators include the population of foreign talent - foreign employees as well as Chinese educated overseas - enterprises with global networks or business, and the world's most popular job positions.

Shanghai was ranked first in terms of talent and enterprises, the report said. The number of foreign workers in Shanghai was almost double that of Beijing.

LinkedIn also found that a rising number of senior Chinese workers with good education and work experience abroad are returning. While people ages 35 to 45 accounted for about 5 percent of all overseas Chinese who came back to China to work in 2010, the proportion increased to around 13 percent last year.

Liu Qi, who spent more than a decade working at a Wall Street bank, joined Beijing-based Finup Credit, an internet service provider of microfinance, in May last year. "Everybody in a huge bank plays a tiny role, but in a burgeoning company in the prosperous internet finance sector in China, I can have a strong sense of fulfillment," he said.

zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn