The first open recruitment for positions in Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei province has attracted thousands of applicants, making the area a hot destination for senior talent.

Twenty-three positions received 4,123 applications, equivalent to around 179 for each post, according to the area's official WeChat account.

However, the proportion was much smaller than that for the national civil service examination, which is one of the fiercest competitions for jobs in the nation.

According to the State Administration of Civil Service, the application-to-recruitment ratio of candidates who participated in the exam last year was 36:1.

Xiongan announced on Aug 31 it was seeking 23 professional and technical personnel at mid or advanced levels for its newly founded construction company－China Xiongan Construction & Investment Group Co Ltd.

With registered capital of 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), the company is the area's first State-owned group, which has been approved by the Hebei provincial government.

Within one week of the recruitment invitation being sent out, more than 4,000 applicants submitted their resumes.

The applicants are from 27 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions nationwide, especially Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. Some are from foreign countries such as Canada, Japan and Iran. Infrastructure construction, finance, and public relations are the top three areas.

The written exams and interviews for the positions have been completed and the final result is expected by the end of this month.

The company did not specify the salaries yet, but authorities have disclosed that staff working in Xiongan will be paid in reference to the salary level in Beijing, or even higher.

"Salaries in Xiongan will be higher than in big cities such as Beijing. Otherwise, nobody would like to come," said Liu Baoling, executive deputy director of the administrative committee of Xiongan New Area.

"To attract talent, the salary should be much higher than that in Beijing, rather than at the same level or just a little bit higher, because the capital has a mature atmosphere of research, culture and living, while Xiongan is still new," Zhu Lijia, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, was quoted as saying by China Economic Weekly.

Also, basic public services in Xiongan should be superior to those in Beijing and Tianjin in order to attract top talents, said He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

As for housing, Xiongan will implement policies to meet the needs of different groups of people.

"The houses are for living in, not for speculation," Liu said, adding that people here will not become fangnu (people burdened by large home mortgages) so that they can have enough time and energy to give full play to their talents.

China announced the decision to set up Xiongan New Area on April 1 to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The area is around 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing.