Chinaˇ®s Dalian city, which is competing with Beijing to be the IT
outsourcing centre in China, has started a worldwide talent hunt for software
professionals.
Xia Deren, mayor of the city, told China Daily that the
four-month recruitment will start in September in six Chinese cities, Canada,
the US, Singapore, India, and Japan.
ˇ°The shortage of talent has become
an issue that we have to solve,ˇ± said Xia.
The northeast coastal city,
neighbouring South Korea and Japan, aims to recruit 10,000 engineers for more
than 100 software companies, including up to 3,000 for senior
positions.
The situation reflects the big gap between the cityˇ®s ambition
to become a major global software outsourcing destination and the lack of
qualified software engineers.
Dalian, based on a report by top German
consultancy Roland Berger, aims to develop a software industry with revenues of
80¨C100 billion yuan (US$9.87¨C12.33 billion) by 2012 and exports of US$4
billion.
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people will be employed
in the industry.
The city, where many residents are fluent in Japanese
and Korean, has become the most favoured overseas destination for companies from
the two countries which want to outsource software contracts to low-cost
regions.
The unique geographic advantage has attracted 22 of the Fortune
Global 500 companies to set up software and service centres in the
city.
The city has seen software sales rise from 200 million yuan
(US$24.6 million) in 1998 to 7 billion yuan (US$863 million) last year, which
are forecast to reach 10 billion yuan (US$1.23 billion).
IBM, which set
up a software centre in Dalian in 2003, plans to have 20,000 engineers in five
years, but only attracted 600 by the end of last year.
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