In a "breakthrough" move, the municipal government will hire 243 staff from Hong Kong for its 51 departments and institutions.

This will be the first time for Shenzhen government to seek employees in Hong Kong.

The hiring will take place when more than 300 employers in Shenzhen hold a job fair in Hong Kong next month, offering 3,000 senior job vacancies.

Shenzhen Vice-Mayor Xu Zongheng said that of the 243 openings, 60 are for posts of experienced consultants and 67 senior contract staff members. The rest are for different disciplines of the government departments.

A spokesman for Shenzhen Municipal Office for Introducing Foreign Talents (SMOIFT), host of the job fair, told China Daily that applicants should meet stringent conditions in terms of educational background, work experience and language skills.

For instance, the Shenzhen Urban Management Bureau requires its senior consultants to be fluent in Putonghua. Another government department seeks people with at least five years' work experience in a developed country. Higher education background is preferred.

"Although the job fair may not be big in scale, it is a breakthrough for us to hire people to work as civil servants from outside the mainland. This is for the betterment of the public service," Xu said.

The job fair will be held at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre starting August 8.

Aside from government bodies, major State-owned enterprises, private companies, universities and hospitals will take part.

For the non-government sectors, employers from the industries of electronic information, finance and foreign trade are the most numerous among the participants, followed by the industries of machinery manufacturing and transportation.

According to SMOIFT, the number of enterprises taking part in the coming job fair is rising.

One of the participants is Shenzhen University. Its spokesman said the university is looking for candidates to fill 60 positions - from lecturers to faculty deans.

Some of the participating hospitals and universities are also prepared to offer relatively higher pay together with fringe benefits such as vehicles and apartments.

At the job fair, Shenzhen real estate developer, Kingkey Group, will offer an annual pay package of US$500,000 for a general manager.

"We look forward to attracting managerial talents with vast knowledge in international markets for our new five-star hotel. We believe that Hong Kong, as an international city, is rich in information as well as the kind of personnel that we require," a Kingkey Group spokesman told China Daily.

Speaking of the talent pool in Hong Kong, Xu said: "The abundant source of returned overseas talents in Hong Kong are fluent in foreign languages and equipped with knowledge and skills. They're exactly what we need in building an international metropolis."

Given the close proximity of Shenzhen to Hong Kong, Xu believed it would increasingly become a lifestyle for Hong Kong people to work in Shenzhen and live in the SAR.

According to the local authorities, about 30,000 Hong Kong people work in Shenzhen, involved mainly in information technology, finance and the security industries.

Professor Guo Weiqing of Sun Yat Sen University believes the job fair will help alleviate the employment pressure in Hong Kong, and provide the middle class with more opportunities in senior positions.

"Employment in Shenzhen will serve as a springboard for Hong Kong job seekers to explore a prominent career in the mainland," Guo said.

Editor: Olivia