Meet the new breed of migrant workers(3)

Cautious about change

According to Gu Jianqing, chairman of the Guangzhou Association of Social Science Societies, the employment of foreigners shows that local governments are promoting the modernization of their systems and governance capabilities.

"The Foshan case shows the spirit of modern governance - open, inclusive and progressive," he said.

For Zheng Chengzhi, an analyst at the Institute of Public Policy at the South China University of Technology, a shift of focus in investment programs is behind the employment of foreigners by local governments.

"The focus is shifting from domestic capital to overseas capital, and from the upstream industries to those downstream, including the business services industry and headquarters economy," he said.

Zheng predicted that the demand for international investment promotion consultants from overseas will grow, but said it's too early to promote the practice among other government departments.

"We should consider the potential challenges that hiring foreigners in the government may bring: the complicated recruitment procedures, financial pressures and the difficulty of integrating the international team because of cultural differences," he said.

"It is also worth asking if the foreign employees can be replaced by Chinese employees with competitive language skills and an education background or work experience overseas," he added.

Wang Xu, head of the Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs at the Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security in Zhuhai, Guangdong, expressed similar concerns.

"The government's investment promotion specialists need not only to communicate with foreign investors but also to coordinate the relevant departments and understand the procedures. It's difficult for foreigners to accomplish these tasks because they don't speak Chinese and are not familiar with the policies," Wang said.

"However, returnees have no such problems. And having studied or worked overseas, they are also strong in foreign languages and familiar with exotic cultures," he said, adding that a large number of returnees now work for the Zhuhai government.

Foshan's Yu said it could be difficult to employ foreigners at other levels of government.

"The work in provincial-level government departments involves a lot of confidentiality, which makes it impossible to allow foreigners to become involved," he said, adding that the foreign staff in his department have signed confidentiality agreements and have no access to confidential documents.

"However, the work at district-level units, the grassroots, requires people to know the community well to provide detailed services for local residents. Foreigners may not be up to doing this."

　　More 'opening up'

Despite the concerns, the Foshan government's initiative is a useful one, given that China is still opening up and has to import much-needed foreign talent, according to the administration of foreign experts affairs under the provincial department of human resources and social security.

"China's civil servant laws don't prohibit the government from hiring foreigners on a contractual basis," Zhou said.

"I respect people's opinions about our initiative, but we must not be so narrow-minded to think that a government post shouldn't be open to foreigners."

Zhou expects Foshan's initiative to prove successful, and hopes it will encourage more second- and third-tier cities to open up to foreign talent.

"How open a country is shouldn't be assessed by looking at several international metropolises like China's four first-tier cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. But it's difficult for a small city to replicate the success of the 'big four', because they enjoy preferential policies provided by the central government, and have long-established international reputations," he said

"However, Foshan is like any other ordinary city in the country - if it can attract foreign talent by having an open mind and using bold innovations, so can other cities."