How can Hong Kong retain mainland talents under the epidemic? Legislative Council members jointly call for "special cases" to give green light to endorsements
[Global Times Special Correspondent Ye Lan in Hong Kong, Global Times reporter Zhao Juehui] The new crown pneumonia epidemic has been protracted for a long time. After the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong, the entry quota has been tightened. It is difficult for talents, professionals and students stranded in the mainland to return to Hong Kong to update their entry visas.
There are public concerns about whether this will make mainland talents who originally wanted to go to Hong Kong give up and lead to brain drain.
Legislative Council members jointly signed, calling for "special handling"
A number of Hong Kong Legislative Council members jointly signed on the 6th, hoping to "specially handle special cases" to give the green light for mainland talents to stay in Hong Kong.
According to Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Daily" report on the 6th, Hong Wen, a member of the Legislative Council who is also the secretary-general of the Hong Kong Huajing Association, recently initiated a joint signature with five other members of the Legislative Council, and wrote to the Chief Secretary for Administration, Li Jiachao (announcing his resignation on the 6th). ), Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Tsang Kwok-wai, and Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung, hope that the Hong Kong government will authorize the Mainland offices to process endorsements in a short period of time, so that professionals, talents and students who meet the immigration plan can renew their endorsements in the Mainland.
According to the regulations of the Hong Kong Immigration Department, people who meet various entry plans must be in person in Hong Kong within a specified time to "activate" each time they renew their entry endorsement.
Hong Wen and others said in the letter that under the epidemic, a group of outstanding talents, professionals and students are stranded in the mainland, and it is difficult to come to Hong Kong to update their endorsements within a designated time.
In addition, entering the mainland from Hong Kong needs to be quarantined for 21 days, which also brings them inconvenience in their studies and work.
As a result, many people have the idea of giving up the entry visa for elite professionals.
However, restarting Hong Kong's economy after the epidemic is inseparable from a large number of talents. These people are selected by the SAR government and are eager to develop in Hong Kong. "If they are trapped by the epidemic and eventually lose their eligibility to come to Hong Kong, it will undoubtedly be a loss for Hong Kong." .
According to a report by Hong Kong's "Bus News" on the 6th, Yang Tiantian, who went to Hong Kong through the Talent Program to work in a Chinese-funded financial institution, has been in Shenzhen for a period of time due to the epidemic and is temporarily working in the company's Shenzhen office.
Although her work has not been affected, there are only 3 months left until she returns to Hong Kong to activate her endorsement.
She said that acceptance of quarantine is expected, but Shenzhen and other cities have very few entry quotas for Hong Kong and designated isolation points for appointments every day. In addition, Shenzhen requires Hong Kong immigrants to hold nucleic acid reports issued by designated agencies within 48 hours. There is a great deal of uncertainty in these requirements.
Yang Tiantian said that she, like many talented students and mainland students, cherishes her work and studies in Hong Kong, and does not want to give up her endorsement because she fails to return to Hong Kong within the time limit.
Hong Wen roughly estimated that about 3,000-5,000 people could not come to Hong Kong to update their endorsements in person.
In an interview with the Global Times reporter on the 6th, she said that in the past few years, Hong Kong has lost a lot of talents, and fields such as technology, construction and engineering are eager for talents. Many mainland talents have been living cross-border lives, and there are frequent The objective needs of going back and forth between the two places.
More than two years of isolation has brought great trouble to their lives and work.
It is very important to retain this batch of Mainland professionals and let them fill the talent vacancies in these industries.
Hong Wen hopes that the SAR government can "specially handle special cases".
In addition to facilitating the renewal of endorsements, she also mentioned that the Immigration Department's database of talented professionals can be used to conduct some surveys, and asked the Hong Kong government office in the Mainland to connect these batch of talented professionals who have returned to the mainland, and provide some services to maintain their understanding of Hong Kong's sense of belonging, etc.
It is understood that the five offices of the Hong Kong SAR government in the mainland can handle some entry and exit affairs such as applying for SAR passports and re-entry permits, and have the basis for accepting the activation and endorsement affairs.
Since October 2020, the Mainland's entry-exit administration department has been re-issuing Home Return Permits for Hong Kong and Macau residents who are in the Mainland and whose Home Return Permits have expired. Previously, applicants for replacement of Home Return Permits had to return to Hong Kong and Macau Apply.
How many people did the "Excellent Talents" program attract?
In 2015, after the Hong Kong SAR government stopped 10 million investment immigrants, it shouted the slogan "Hong Kong lacks talents but not wealth", and stepped up efforts to attract overseas and mainland talents to come to Hong Kong for employment and entrepreneurship.
As early as July 2003, Hong Kong launched the "Introduction of Mainland Talents Program", also known as the "Professional Talents Program", which aims to attract outstanding and professional talents from the Mainland to work in Hong Kong.
Statistics show that in 2019, the Hong Kong Immigration Department approved a total of 14,053 applications, of which arts/culture, financial services, academic research and education, commerce and trade, engineering and construction, information technology, and legal services are all popular industries.
Another major project for Hong Kong to introduce talents from the Mainland is the "Excellent Talents Scheme", namely the "Excellent Talents Admission Scheme", which aims to attract outstanding talents from all over the world to settle in Hong Kong.
The program was launched in June 2006, and the annual quota will be increased from 1,000 to 2,000 in 2020. About 86% of the approved overseas talents are from the mainland.
By the end of 2021, the "Excellent Talent Program" has received a total of 36,689 applications, of which 9,131 applicants have been allocated places. The top three origins are the mainland, the United States and Canada, and the top three industries are finance and accounting. Services, IT and Telecommunications and Architecture, Surveying, Engineering and Construction.
Hong Wen told the Global Times reporter that there are a lot of "Hong Kong drifters" in Hong Kong's financial industry, but in fact mainland talents are involved in many industries.
She said that the introduction of talented professionals by the Hong Kong government has in fact measured the fit of these types of talents with the local market demand; those who can obtain endorsement of talented professionals usually have employment contracts with companies, or come from Hong Kong who need them field of.
Hong Wen said that Hong Kong is relatively short of talents in medical, nursing, technology, education and other fields.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on March 30 this year that the number of people going to Hong Kong through the "Excellent Talents Program" has been increasing, and the number of non-local students enrolling in the eight Hong Kong-funded universities has increased unabated.
Carrie Lam conservatively estimated in the "Policy Address" that nearly 5,000 non-local graduates will benefit every year. They apply for employment in Hong Kong and become permanent residents after living for seven years.
In addition, the annual quota of the "Excellent Talents Program" will also be doubled to 4,000.
Hong Wen believes that Hong Kong's overall business environment and certain potential development areas, such as finance and high-end service industries, are still attractive to mainland talents.
However, this attraction is not comprehensive - in certain industries, Hong Kong must vigorously create development opportunities in order to attract talents.
"For example, in the development of the innovation and technology industry, talents and industries are a chicken-and-egg problem. Without industries, talents cannot be attracted, and industries without talents cannot develop." She said that this requires Hong Kong to have a set of development plans, starting from the industrial ecological system. From the perspective, let the industry and talents go hand in hand.
Hong Kong universities are still more attractive to mainland students
The "turmoil of amendments" coupled with the epidemic, Hong Kong colleges and universities have faced various pressures in the past two years.
Whether it can maintain its attractiveness to mainland students is also a key point that many colleges and universities have to consider.
In May last year, the Hong Kong Education Bureau disclosed the number of students in UGC-funded programmes from the 2018/19 school year to the 2020/21 school year.
The results show that the proportion of mainland students in the total students in 6 of the "eight universities", including City University, Lingnan University, Chinese University, Polytechnic University, University of Science and Technology and the University of Hong Kong, has increased.
Among them, Hong Kong University has the highest proportion, with 3,423 students, accounting for 16.7%; followed by CUHK, with 3,044 students, accounting for 14.8%.
The "2021 Hong Kong, China Admissions Report" shows that from January to July 2021, the number of mainland students going to Hong Kong increased by 126% year-on-year.
Data from the Hong Kong Immigration Department's annual report also shows that the number of mainland students approved for student endorsements in 2020-2021 was 32,332, an increase of 59% from 20,361 in 2017-2018.
However, with the increasingly severe epidemic situation in Hong Kong, many mainland students choose to go home and take online classes.
Hong Kong Toutiao Daily reported earlier that the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University have successively announced that they will teach online courses from February, and the University of Science and Technology and Lingnan University will conduct dual-track "online courses + face-to-face teaching".
Some mainland students from Hong Kong University shared a video of the long queue to pass the customs.
Zhu, a graduate student at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of China, whose family is in Jiangsu, plans to fly directly from Hong Kong to Shanghai because he can't get a pass in Shenzhen Bay.
She said, "If the diagnosis is only one or two hundred, I may not go back, but now I can't stop the car, and my classmates have gone back a lot."
Some students struggle with rent.
It is understood that the monthly housing rent of international students in Hong Kong ranges from 4,000-6,000 Hong Kong dollars, and some high-end residences cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Students often need to sign a full-year contract, and they cannot withdraw from the rental halfway. Leaving Hong Kong means losing a lot of rent.
However, there are also comments that although Hong Kong universities are affected by social events and the epidemic, they are still attractive to mainland students.
In addition to serving as a springboard to top schools in Europe and America, when the epidemic broke out in Europe and the United States, Hong Kong colleges and universities instead became "safe havens".
Some students said that considering that Hong Kong schools are ranked high in the world, their tuition fees are better than those of the UK and Australia, and they are close to home, they are still the first choice for further studies.