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Domestic and international talents will have better opportunities to develop in Qianhai and Hong Kong as the two places are offering a series of attractive measures to lure talents, audiences were told at the Ninth Annual Conference of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Qianhai Talents Cooperation at the Qianhai International Talent Hub on Sunday.

Huang Xiaopeng, executive deputy director of the Qianhai Authority, said at the conference that Qianhai has been committed to building itself as the first stop and first choice for overseas talents who seek employment and entrepreneurship in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

“Currently, Qianhai has rolled out a series of measures to lure talents, such as implementing a favorable personal income tax rate for high-end and urgently needed overseas talents, giving out 740 million yuan (US$101.97 million) in subsidies to 1,611 qualified talents, strengthening cooperation with universities in Hong Kong to open new research institutes in Qianhai and adopting 451 one-stop services for talents through the Qianhai International Talent Hub,” Huang said.

Mok Ka-wai, chief immigration officer of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong, attended the conference via video link. He said that the Hong Kong government has launched a “high-end talent pass plan,” through which eligible talents will obtain a two-year stay permit to work in Hong Kong. Qualifying individuals include those whose annual salary was no less than HK$2.5 million (US$318,465) in the past year (with no thresholds on educational background), or graduates from top 100 global universities and colleges who have no less than three years of working experience in the past five years. In addition, the plan will have a quota of 10,000 each year for graduates of the aforementioned universities and colleges in the past five years but do not meet the working experience requirement.

According to Mok, the Hong Kong government has also optimized its Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, including canceling the 4,000 annual quota for two years, optimizing review procedures, extending limit of stay for nonlocal graduates from one to two years and incorporating graduates of Hong Kong universities’ campuses in the GBA into the scheme, among others.

At the conference, the Qianhai Authority and Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong also jointly released the "2023 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Joint Talent Recruitment Plan." The two parties will jointly organize a number of recruitment activities to attract more international talents to Shenzhen and Hong Kong for development.