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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, February 19, 2002

China top manager market in Asia

By Elaine Kurtenbach
Associated Press

A visitor studies ads at the first China Career Expo at Hong Kong's convention center.

Associated Press

Seeking skilled workers

Job fair

mail.mrchr.com/ccexpo/ ehome.htm

Companies hiring in mainland China

Strongnet.com

employchina.com

zhaodaole.com

HONG KONG — It's a tough time to be looking for work — unless the job happens to be in mainland China, where companies desperate for managers with overseas experience and expertise are recruiting like mad.

Increasingly, mid-level professionals in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia are finding career opportunities in fast-growing China that have dried up back home.

"From a career perspective, it's like the 1960s or 1970s in Hong Kong. There's an abundance of opportunities if you have an entrepreneurial spirit," said Gilbert Choy, a Hong Kong native who moved last year to Beijing, where he now heads a venture capital company backed by the Ministry of Information Industry.

Recruiting Web sites and Hong Kong classified sections are packed with ads for experienced sales, managerial, technical and accounting staff — to be stationed in China.

Although Chinese companies are laying off less-skilled workers by the millions, they need outside help to meet the tougher competition expected from China's entry into the World Trade Organization.

"The flip side of WTO is that Chinese companies have to understand how the rest of the world works," said Jim McGregor, a consultant and longtime Beijing resident.

"In the future, these will be world-class companies. They have to build human resource systems. They have to offer stock options. Any company that wants to be world competitive will need people from the outside to do it," McGregor said.

Li Zhucheng, a private businessman and managing director of Fashion Electronics City, a retailer based in the southern city of Dongguan whose next-door neighbor is a Wal-Mart outlet, is hiring four positions: two operations managers, a sales manager and a human resources manager.

"The staff we can find on the mainland are not up to a first-class level. We're competing with the likes of Wal-Mart and Carre-four. We need someone to bring our management up to that level," said Li, who attended a recent recruitment fair held in Hong Kong to match job seekers to potential employers.

The job fair drew 12,000 visitors and 100 potential employers, including major electronics manufacturers, retailers, newspapers and resorts.

Organizers said more than 300 people were hired and almost 5,000 applications received during the two-day fair. Many visitors were dressed to impress, with lengthy resumes. Some flew in from Taiwan and Japan.

Kenny Ng, general manager of Manpower Resource Computing Ltd., the company that organized the job fair, said he expects about a dozen such events to be held this year in Hong Kong.

"The Hong Kong economy is not headed in a good direction. There are so many layoffs and bankruptcies. But China is growing fast," said Ng, who moved to the mainland two years ago.

While Hong Kong teetered on the brink of recession last year, with unemployment at 6.1 percent, and some of its neighbors saw their economies shrink, China's economy grew at a rate of about 7 percent, and Guangdong's at 9.5 percent.

Economists say such statistics might be inflated, but it is apparent that heavy government spending, foreign investment and demand for consumer goods and better housing have helped shelter China's economy from the worst of the global downturn so far.

Until recently, many qualified managers might have balked at a move to the mainland.

Recent surveys suggest the tougher job market has made Hong Kong residents, at least, far more willing to consider relocating, with 80 percent to 90 percent saying they would consider such a change. According to the Census and Statistics Department, 176,300 Hong Kong residents were working in the mainland last year, up from 133,500 in 1998.

"These days, some professional employees can't find job opportunities elsewhere. Those people have no choice. They know China is the market," said Albert Chau, principle consultant at Watson Wyatt Worldwide's Hong Kong office.

As far as retailer Li is considered, the bleak job market outside China is good news for him. After two days of gathering resumes at the job fair, he invited several candidates to visit his company for more discussion.

"I don't have high hopes. I know people view living in China as a hassle," Li said. "If the economy wasn't so bad, they probably wouldn't want to come to China. For us, this is a great opportu-nity."