Hong Kong is recruiting graduates from mainland China in an apparent attempt to replace talent lost in the brain drain sparked by the imposition of a harsh security law in 2020.
Many graduates seeking jobs at a “Greater Bay Area” youth job fair on Thursday came from mainland China rather than Hong Kong, though the heavily subsidized fair was ostensibly held to benefit young people in Hong Kong.
The event comes as Beijing seeks drive further integration between the former colonial cities of Hong Kong and Macao and their neighbors in Guangdong province, symbolized by the opening of the longest sea bridge in the world linking cities across the Pearl River Delta in 2018.
Chinese last month unveiled a new visa program that could attract a huge influx of highly-skilled people to live and work in Hong Kong, which has seen a mass exodus of people since the ruling Chinese Communist Party launched a crackdown on dissent in the wake of 2019 protests, while the Hong Kong government has announced that it will hand out free plane tickets to increase the number of visitors.
Companies that sign up for the employment scheme (HSBC, Bank of China and Tencent were present at the fair) will receive a government allowance of HK$10,000 (US$1,275). a month for 18 months, according to the city labor department.
A recent finance graduate from mainland China who gave only the last name Chen said she is looking to get a job at a bank and believes the Greater Bay Area, which includes Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Macao and Zhuhai, is an attractive place for live and work. .
“I think there is more cross-culture in the Greater Bay Area, which is where more foreigners come to do business, which creates a lot of job opportunities,” Chen said. “There are so many parts of the Greater Bay Area now, so maybe everyone can branch out to develop (their career) instead of staying in one place.”
‘I like the work culture’
A recent graduate from mainland China who gave only the last name Lin said she has lived in Hong Kong for the past six years and is looking for a job in the media.
“I would choose Hong Kong to work because I like the work culture and professionalism,” Lin said. “But mainland China is actually a bit more comfortable and convenient to live in, and the cost of living is lower.”
A third graduate who gave the surname Huang said she had heard about the fair on the social media platform Xiaohongshu while studying for a master’s degree at a mainland Chinese university.
According to a press release from the Labor Department, some 2,600 jobs will be offered in Hong Kong at 35 organizations participating in the fair, almost half of which are in the catering, retail and hotel industries.
Most of the openings offer monthly salaries ranging from HK$12,000 to HK$23,000 (US$1,530 to US$2,930), compared with an average starting salary of around 6,000 yuan (US$875) in mainland China.
Meanwhile, more than 400 jobs will be offered in mainland China in management, banking, publishing, engineering and business intelligence, among other categories, he said.
“For graduates, first of all, good salaries are offered at a reasonable level,” said the director of the labor office, William Ng, when the job fair opened. “Recent graduates don’t get as high a salary in mainland China, so it’s a good starting salary for Hong Kong students.”
rail link
Meanwhile, plans are underway to issue flexible commuter tickets for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, a backbone of the Greater Bay Area, according to officials.
“Mass Transit Railway Corp Ltd and the relevant mainland rail authorities have been studying and discussing the feasibility of ‘metrotization’ of the (high speed rail link) short distance services,” the Transport and Logistics Secretary told lawmakers. , Lam Sai-hung. March 29.
“Under the agreement, ticket holders can flexibly change tickets to any other train traveling to/from the same destination on the mainland on the same day,” Lam said.
Elsewhere in Hong Kong, thousands of seniors have begun returning to the city on low-cost, one-day tour packages that guide them to special restaurants for lunch, much to the annoyance of local residents.
Tourist traffic is returning to To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom in Kowloon, with long lines of mainland Chinese tourists waiting for buses or entering a restaurant for their packed lunches.
However, not all were satisfied customers.
“We have been waiting for 10 minutes… I have a pretty bad impression of Hong Kong: there is not much space and it is poorly managed,” a tourist who went by only Chen told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
“I hope they can open more restaurants in other places and not concentrate them all in one place,” said a tourist with the last name Cheng.
‘Food is ok’
But a tourist surnamed Li said it wasn’t too bad. “It’s pretty good,” he said. “People shouldn’t demand perfection, since nothing is perfect.”
“The food is fine,” said a tourist surnamed Xiao. “We had fish, meat and vegetables, at our age we’ve been through a lot of hard times, but things are good now.”
But a Hong Kong resident who gave only the last name Chow said mainland tourists were a nuisance because they blocked the sidewalks.
“I told them to get out of the way in Mandarin, but they didn’t seem to listen,” Chow said, adding that some of the tourists throw chopsticks on the sidewalk after picking their teeth and spit.
Staff at the two main restaurants in To Kwa Wan that cater to mainland tour groups said about 5,000 mainland Chinese tourists eat in the district every day.
Former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, who now lives in Australia, said there is considerable public opposition to mainland Chinese tour groups taking buses across the border.
“There are entire industries dedicated to serving mainland Chinese customers, which makes people worry that Hong Kong is becoming more like the mainland, reminds them of the Hong Kong wholesale mainlandization since the Umbrella Movement (2014) and the protest movement (2019),” Hui said.
“That applies to education, the electoral system, the judiciary and the government, which people in Hong Kong feel is a deterioration, a step back, and that the old advantages of the past have been lost,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
