Beefing up a depleted workforce and stepping up economic recovery are among the SAR’s primary goals as it tries to lure professionals, including from the Chinese mainland, to settle in the city. But job applicants face a tight labor market and will have to overcome language and cultural barriers. Zhang Tianyuan reports in Hong Kong.

On a muggy June day, 34-year-old Liang, who declined to disclose her full name, armed with a bachelor's degree in engineering from Zhejiang University, arrived in Hong Kong to begin a new journey in her life - six months after securing her visa under the city's Top Talent Pass program.

Liang is among some 130,000 people from the Chinese mainland and abroad to have arrived in the special administrative region in the vanguard of a suite of talent attraction programs the SAR government has instituted to plug a dearth of professionals and lift its linchpin finance and technology fields as the city attempts to recover from the COVID-19-battered economy.

The central government is fully behind Hong Kong's quest to attract global talent as stated in a document following the third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee, which ended on July 18. The high-level meeting laid out a blueprint for the nation's long-term development trajectory and endorsed Hong Kong's aspirations to become a world hub for high-caliber talent.

But the chasm in the SAR's living and dietary habits, the constraints of its market size, and recent economic struggles, suggest that persuading people from outside to settle in the city with their families will not be easy.

Open to opportunities

Liang, a cross-border e-commerce data analyst, is apprehensive after a whirlwind three-day reconnaissance of her potential new home. In Hangzhou, the capital of East China's Zhejiang province, she relishes living in a 90-square-meter apartment in an urban setting with her husband, a two-year-old son and a nanny. They are the quintessential Chinese middle-class family. She wants to replicate her family's lifestyle in the new urban jungle. However, Hong Kong's skyrocketing costs, particularly for housing, present a formidable barrier and Liang has to weigh up potential salary growth against high rental costs in one of the world's most expensive cities.

The cultural and language barriers also make her pause. "It's markedly distinct from Hangzhou with its more measured pace of life," she notes. "Hong Kong's narrow streets are always packed with people, and everyone speaks Cantonese." Any decision to uproot her family from the comforts of Hangzhou to the frenetic pace of life in Hong Kong isn't something that can be made easily despite the allure of international exposure and affluent resources for children's education.

While Liang is confident she will secure a job in Hong Kong, "My priority is to have my visa extended when it expires in two years' time. If relocation proves to be challenging, I might consider being an insurance broker who is allowed to work remotely or apply for a master's degree in renewing my visa," she says. Her long-term aspiration is to attain permanent residency after a seven-year stay - a status that would open the door to more educational opportunities for her child.

An estimated 120,000 dependents have already accompanied those approved professionals to the bustling metropolis, according to Hong Kong's Labour Department.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said 75,700 professionals with visas granted under employment-related programs had secured jobs by the end of June. For some talent admission initiatives, such as the Top Talent Pass and the Quality Migrant Admission programs, applicants don't need to show proof of having been offered a job in Hong Kong while their applications are being processed.

Mainland professionals are an important panacea for Hong Kong's labor woes, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total number arriving under the talent attraction plans.

Those admitted through the Top Talent Pass program are well-educated and hold senior positions in their careers, notes Victor Zheng Wan-tai, associate director (executive) of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"Their exposure to global firms operating on the mainland, coupled with a good understanding of both the Chinese and overseas markets, could help Hong Kong develop industries in advanced science and newfangled technologies," he says.