Six of China's biggest state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have named seven key top executives through large-scale open recruitment campaigns, the first of their kind by Chinese authorities to help enterprises land the right people to upgrade management.

The state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), organizer of the campaign, announced the results yesterday in Beijing.

Six of the seven finalists hold master's degrees or doctorates, and most have studied or worked overseas. All are mainlanders.

Huang Bilie, who has been working as the chief financial officer in a Hong Kong company, Wide-code Investment (Group) Ltd, was named to a deputy general manager's position in China National Foreign Trade Transportation (Group) Corporation (Sinotrans).

Huang, 38, is the only executive in the seven employed directly from an overseas company in the campaign.

He said that the new position would give him "a broader stage to play on."

SASAC, which directly supervises the 189 central and biggest SOEs as the owner of the State assets, started the recruitment campaign in September.

All the jobs offered are either deputy general managers or chief accountants.

Also joining Sinotrans to seek managers were five other SOEs, including China United Telecommunications Corporation.

Altogether, 463 applicants, including 17 foreigners, were attracted by the offer and competed for the positions. Only 126 qualified after a written exam and fewer participated in interviews.

"Though no foreigners won out this time, we can ensure the fairness and equity of the examination process," said Li Rongrong, SASAC chairman, "Everybody competed equally."

He also said more central SOEs would seek senior executives or independent directors next year.

Compared with traditional methods of assignments of top managerial staffers, open recruitment enables state-owned companies to find suitable personnel in a much wider sphere and more transparent way, he said.

China Aluminium Corporation, one of the recruiters, gave a deputy general manager offer to a municipal official in Luzhou, southwest China's Sichuan Province, though meantime, China Unicom still chose to promote two of its own subsidiary managers.

The companies are to sign working contracts soon with applicants they chose. Their salaries should be higher than those directly appointed by the state for the same positions, though the exact figures are to be set by the companies themselves, said Li.

SASAC will also promote a new performance evaluation and payment system in the central SOEs next year.

The average salary of the enterprise chiefs would be around 250,000 yuan (US$30,200) per year.

But they may have their pay cut or doubled based on their performance and the profitability of their firms. That will be judged by the new evaluation system, insiders said.

(China Daily December 18, 2003)