Chinese enterprises should be fully aware of the challenge of losing talented people to foreign-funded companies now that China is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC).

Many multinational companies have entered China and more will come, and they will inevitably contend for qualified personnel with Chinese enterprises, said Gao Tongsheng, who has long been engaged in study of human resources.

Many talented people in China used to be attracted to the developed countries in the 1980s and 1990s, when more than 90 percent of the staff of multinationals' China subsidiaries were sent from overseas. Now more and more Chinese professionals are working for multinationals in the country, and they are expected to account for more than 90 percent of the employees of foreign- funded firms, Gao said.

"The localization of employees has become a trend in multinationals," the researcher said.

Different from the traditional way of recruiting people, an increasing number of foreign companies are looking for professionals through the Internet.

Multinationals are going all out after Chinese professionals in science, technology and business management, who are also badly needed in Chinese enterprises. Big companies such as Intel and Microsoft have established more than 100 research and development centers in China, employing Chinese professionals.

Noting that capacity building has become the key in the current new round of wealth accumulation, NPC deputies agree that it is an urgent job to prevent brain drain, absorb more talented people and provide conditions for them to display their abilities.

To develope human resources and improve professional skills

At the same time, said NPC deputy Niu Wenyuan, efforts must be made to vigorously develop human resources and improve the professional skills of China's labor force in an all-round manner so as to provide a strong support to the country's reform and modernization drive.

It is learned that departments concerned in Beijing and Shanghai have adopted certain measures and the Ministry of Personnel is drafting related laws and regulations aimed at pool more skilled and professional people to work for Chinese companies.

(People's Daily March 11, 2002)