Hong Kong’s talent trawling schemes should focus on quality over quantity and seek a diverse range of professionals to meet the central government’s expectation that the city becomes a hub for international high-fliers, experts have said.
They also called on local authorities to offer more support to new arrivals, as many faced a wide range of challenges such as getting their own businesses started, finding work and settling their families.
Beijing has already thrown its weight behind Hong Kong’s efforts to become a hub for international high-end talent, with the Communist Party last week passing a resolution at the third plenary session of its 20th Central Committee.
The paper said central authorities backed Hong Kong’s global talent trawl, while also calling on the city to improve the mechanism so it could better support the country’s efforts to open up.
In 2022, the city’s current administration under Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu launched a series of measures that sought to attract fresh talent and help counter an emigration wave.
The policies include the Top Talent Pass Scheme, which is open to candidates who earned more than HK$2.5 million (US$320,000) over the past 12 months and graduates of the world’s top 100 universities.
The scheme has received more than 85,000 applications, with 68,000 being approved, between its launch in late 2022 and May of this year.
Combined with the other policies, the city has welcomed more than 130,000 people by June, surpassing the government’s target of bringing in 105,000 over three years.
Alexa Chow Yee-ping, managing director of AMAC Human Resources Consultants, said the government needed to review the Top Talent Pass Scheme’s criteria if it wanted to attract international high-end talent.
“The requirements of the Top Talent Pass Scheme are loose … those graduates from the top 100 universities and with three years of experience or less are surely young talent, but they are not quite high-end,” she said.
“With most talent coming from the mainland, how are we different from a mainland city?”
Among those admitted under the city’s talent schemes, only 25 per cent of successful candidates were from outside mainland China.
For the Top Talent Pass Scheme, more than 90 per cent of approved applicants were from across the border.
Chow urged the government to roll out more incentives to lure high-earners, who accounted for fewer than 30 per cent of all applications, with her suggestions including more support for those starting their own businesses.
Authorities could tighten requirements for policies targeting younger talent, opting for candidates with master’s degrees or doctorates rather than bachelor’s degrees, she added.
Chow said that more incentives were needed to diversify the talent profile, which was dominated by mainlanders.
“We have had a slow recovery from the pandemic compared with other parts of the world. We need more promotions to tell the world that Hong Kong still has potential and opportunities – that’s what talent is looking for,” she said.
Authorities could also increase local university quotas for international students, who would have better adapted to the city by the time they graduated and were more likely to stay if they found work, she added.
Lawmaker Shang Hailong, who is also chairman of the Hong Kong Top Talent Services Association, said the supply of high-paying jobs in the city could hardly keep up with the demand created by the influx of talent.
He said authorities needed to encourage a wider variety of companies to set up or expand their operations in Hong Kong to “provide a bigger stage for talent to shine”.
He also observed a growing demand among high-earning talent to start their own businesses as they were struggling to find other high-paying jobs and their expertise had limited demand in the city, citing electric car designers as an example.
“They are not starting traditional businesses, but artificial intelligence, biotech, Web3, and new energy, which they have a strong confidence in … but they are new to the city and need more support, ranging from funding to office space.”
He said the current support measures for business starters were disorganised, with companies of different scales and types being handled by different government offices.
Shang instead urged authorities to establish a one-stop service that supported businesses of all sizes.
The government in the long run should also offer more details about the types of talent it needed, he said, citing how some places stipulated they wanted patent holders and the winners of internationally recognised awards.
Armstrong Lee Hon-cheung, managing director of Worldwide Consulting Group, said the government could roll out specific incentives for high-end talent, such as tax reductions, housing and education allowances.
Lee said the government’s plan to transform part of the New Territories into an innovation and technology hub under the Northern Metropolis mega project could be used as a lure for high-end professionals.
“The Northern Metropolis will create abundant job opportunities for such talent … the government should build more flats for talent there and liaise with other cities in the Greater Bay Area about the talent they need to reduce competition.”
The bay area refers to Beijing’s ambitious initiative to turn Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland cities into a hi-tech powerhouse by 2035.
The Labour and Welfare Bureau said on Monday that the government was “deeply encouraged by the resolution” and pledged to continue to attract, retain and nurture sufficient talent to maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness.
The government was reviewing the Top Talent Pass Scheme and other admission schemes to ensure they effectively addressed the city’s staffing demands, a spokesman said.
“In the review, we will take heed of the operational experience in the implementation of various talent admission schemes, the current labour market situation and feedback from various quarters of the community,” he said.
