The Shanghai government released Sunday new guidelines aimed at attracting domestic and foreign skilled professionals and researchers to the city.
The paper, published by the Organization Department of Party Committee of Shanghai, a city-level branch of the Communist Party of China, expands benefits introduced last year.
"If we call the previously sparse policies on attracting talented people to Shanghai Version 1.0, then the 20 regulations released last year was Version 2.0, and the most recent 30 details should be called Version 3.0," the Shanghai Observer quoted an official from the Organization Department of Party Committee of Shanghai as saying.
The new guidelines, which went into effect immediately, revise the department's Several Opinions on Implementing Deepening Reform in the System and Mechanism to Promote Creation and Start-ups of Talents issued in July 2015.
The guidelines seek a reasonable, standard, open and effective system to promote the development of skilled professionals and researchers in the city, targeting fields including science, technology, engineering, finance, trade and shipping.
The 30 details expand specifics and define terms, from recruiting a skilled professional to evaluating and stimulating his or her capacity, facilitating free flow of labor in the market and creating a favorable environment for professionals to take achievements in science and technology to industrial production.
The core idea of the guidelines is to grant more freedom to employers and skilled professionals and to infuse vitality in the labor pool to make Shanghai a hub that gathers and nurtures world-class professionals of creative and entrepreneurial spirit, who can build and develop their career here.
Alluring foreign talents
The regulations outline preferential policies to attract skilled foreign professionals and researchers in fields such as science and technology.
Last year, only overseas students with postgraduate degrees from Shanghai's universities could be directly hired by enterprises and institutions in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone.
This year's paper expands that to foreign students with a bachelor's degree from Shanghai's universities.
According to a staff member from Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the city will aim at eventually attracting foreign students who studied at non-Shanghai universities to work in the city.
Foreign talent residence permits, also known as a "Shanghai Green Card," also now bestow more rights.
A person who has a foreign talent residence permit now can buy one apartment for family use without paying real estate tax, and can enjoy same rights as Shanghai citizens in children's education and provident funds for home-buying.
Last year, Shanghai extended the maximum validity of foreign talent residence permits from five years to 10 years. Under last year's guidelines, 4,638 people entered Shanghai working under the permit.
By the end of June, Shanghai has received 503 applications for permanent residence, making up more than 50 percent of applications nationwide.
Stimulating market
Market incentives for skilled professionals were another major concern for policymakers.
Researchers at universities and institutions can now participate in pricing negotiations, auctions and other forms of market activities concerning their work, as well as help decide market prices.
A staff member from Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau said that previously many scientific institutions unilaterally overvalued certain innovations or technologies based on their own evaluations and often failed to close deals with entrepreneurs.
Moreover, the regulations grant university and institutional labs the right to transfer at least 70 percent of net profits from their work to team members.
In the recently issued paper, net profits are defined as profit minus direct expenditures in developing a scientific and technological innovation.
Tax regulations are also eased for researchers and enterprises. Previously, staff members who were involved in programs employing stock incentives would have to pay personal income tax in installments within five years.
The new regulations expand the time frame to the day when these people receive dividends for their stock shares or when they transfer shares.
A staff member from Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau said that the policies show the government's appreciation of skilled professionals and researchers, and incentivize them. The staffer also noted that the new regulations will see a rise in salary budgets of at least 20 percent.
Supporting setups
Makerspaces, clusters of innovative institutions and companies, have become prominent collaboration networks to facilitate birth and development of start-up companies.
According to data released by Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the city has over 500 makerspaces, and 90 percent of them are privately owned. Among them, 71 start-up incubators have cultivated 5,500 programs.
Catering to innovative forces like makerspaces, the new guidelines also detail supportive measures for such inventors. The city is to improve its service and management in countering intellectual property infringement, maintain platforms for financing innovative programs, as well as enforce laws to evaluate and protect skilled people.
Besides the support in corporate and research fields, the city is to grant more resources to skilled professionals living here by solving problems in housing, medical care and international education for foreign people.
