Villages try to attract top talent

The 3,000 village official posts in Beijing's rural areas will be open this year, for the first time, to college graduates who do not have Beijing residency and who graduated from a college outside the capital.

Chinese graduates of foreign universities, if they are Beijing residents and graduated after January 2011, and those from key Chinese universities who passed a public servant exam earlier, can apply for the village official post this year, said the Beijing Human Resource and Social Security Bureau Tuesday.

The new policy allows more college graduates from outside Beijing to join in the construction of rural areas and gain experience into the working life of an official in Beijing's grassroots government.

"We had many Chinese students calling from overseas last year, and we did admit four of them," Yang Gang, a bureau official told the Beijing Daily.

The new policy stipulates that Chinese students who studied abroad are qualified to apply, since the government wants a more international perspective in suggesting new ideas for rural development, Yang said.

"This policy definitely can bring more fresh blood to our village, and ease the pressure for graduates who find job hunting difficult," said Cheng Guanglin, Party Chief of Miaojuan village, Shunyi district. It will be good if graduates from key foreign or Chinese universities can apply he said, since this will help elevate the education level of the village management team.

Cheng said they used to have five college graduates but they had all left, either for other jobs in the city or have started their own businesses.

"We need a graduate official who majored in the liberal arts," he said, explaining that Miaojuan receives thousands of tourists, and he needs someone who is good at organizing activities.

Zhang You, who graduated last year and works as assistant to the Party Chief of Dajiaoyu village, Miyun county, said the new policy is meant to attract more talent from outside Beijing given that it is harder to hire enough good local ones.

"A lot of us are dissatisfied with the salary. Miyun county didn't get enough student officials as was needed last year," she said. But the job is still very promising, said Zhang, who is determined to stay in the village to make a difference to the people's lives.

College graduates working as village officials usually take posts as assistants to the village leaders, and most of them help in the administration work and organization of village activities. They earn 2,000 to 3,000 yuan ($3,185-4,778) per month and will be given a Beijing hukou after their three-year-contract.

Despite the merits of bringing college students to rural areas, the policy is offering applicants a false message that being a village official is beneficial, said Zhang Hulin, an expert on Chinese rural issues and former director with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Zhang was one of the people who suggested the scheme to the government in 2003, however the initial idea was that the graduates would be volunteers.

"Promising them too much doesn't help them turn into really good officials who can stay for a long time and care for the local development," Zhang said.

The some 3,000 posts this year include 2,848 assistant posts to village leaders and 152 assistants to farm cooperatives, who will help provide training courses for members and manage marketing or administration of the cooperatives, according to the bureau.

The pay for the student officials will remain the same this year, said Yang, but the bureau is working on a plan to improve their current treatment, for example, improving the level of the salary in the future, the report said.