City gov't shows foreign experts what it has achieved

Twenty expatriates visited Hengqin New Area on May 19 at the invitation of the Zhuhai Municipal Human Resources & Social Security Bureau to see up close the great achievements the city has made over the years.

Coming from Britain, the United States, Germany, Canada, Austria, Denmark, and elsewhere, the expat contingent consisted mostly of long-time senior management at foreign-funded businesses or institutions. As Frank Bodenhage, president and CEO of MTU Maintenance Zhuhai, put it, he has lived and worked here for 12 years and is a faithful witness to skyrocketing changes. Prior to Zhuhai, he was with MTU in Hanover, Germany. 

The company leaders toured the Hengqin Planning Exhibition Hall, underground utility tunnel, Macao-Hengqin Youth Entrepreneurship Valley (Inno Valley HQ), and Xiangzhou Port Culture Block to experience fast-changing Hengqin and the vigor and vitality of Zhuhai's development.

Hengqin Planning Exhibition Hall [Photo by Wu Changfu / Zhuhai Daily]

The visitors said they were immensely impressed by Hengqin's underground utility tunnel. One of them was Andrew Gordon VanderMeulen, head of Zhuhai International School who is originally from a small town in Ontario, Canada, but has worked at schools in Yemen, the Bahamas, Tanzania, and Shanghai. VanderMeulen gasped in admiration that six kinds of pipelines go their own ways in a well-regulated manner, showcasing a high-level modernity.

At the symposium later, the expats spoke of how Zhuhai can further develop and how to import and service foreign talents. According to Bodenhage, MTU has benefited a lot from local talent policies in its leapfrog growth. He asked that the recently launched Zhuhai Talent Program soon reach out to enterprises to solidify expatriate confidence in innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Zhuhai government attaches great importance to introduction of foreign talents and to providing services for them. It has rolled out numerous innovative measures in policy and financial support, work permits, and residency convenience. The city will next issue measures to start bringing in more foreign talent under the new circumstances, and offer greater services for their work and daily life.

More than 2,000 expatriates work in Zhuhai, of whom 240 are recognized as High-End Foreign Talents (Category A). In recent years, the city has seen one foreign expert accepted into the Thousand Talents Plan, three earning the Chinese Government Friendship Award, and four included in the Guangdong Pearl River Talents Plan. Twenty-three have been recognized as High-End Foreign Experts of Guangdong Province and enjoy permanent residence in China.