Great opportunity

Last month, a top official in the agency that handles foreign experts affairs indicated that China would for the first time publish a skills shortage list next year to attract the right kind of foreign talent.

The game-changing announcement from Liu Yanguo, deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, came as leading think tank the Center for China and Globalization warned the country is experiencing a critical shortage of "global talent".

The organization's director, Wang Huiyao, says China will need an additional 75,000 executive managers with global experience in the next five to 10 years.

That there is great opportunity in China is not in dispute. But in the often confusing and contradictory storm of information that will continue to rage until the official skills list is published, the question many foreigners face hangs over who and what exactly, China wants.

Frenchman Anthony Garcia, 33, who arrived in China two years ago, wishes he knew. An IT project manager with 10 years of experience, Garcia spent his first 12 months in Beijing studying Mandarin to make himself a more attractive hire.

The past year has been a wearisome succession of applications and interviews. One of the early birds to turn out at the job fair, he says despite his best efforts, he still has not secured employment.

"I feel it is not that easy now," Garcia says. "I think it used to be easier. China is still OK, but I think the economy is not as good as it was."

While China's economy did take a slight hit this year when the growth rate dipped from 7.7 percent in the first quarter to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, National Bureau of Statistics figures show the GDP growth rate rebounded to 7.8 percent in the July to September period. Slower growth isn't cited as a factor affecting the employment market for foreigners in China.

If anything, experts such as Wang believe government reforms to tackle current economic challenges and transform China into an "innovation-driven economy" will actually bolster the case for hiring more foreign workers with valuable skill sets.