[New Ideas Lead a New Journey • Hebei’s Scorecard] Relying on Talent to Pioneer and to Propel Development and to Unleash Innovation Potential

May 21, 2023

“Blazing new trails in pursuing innovation-driven development” is General Secretary Xi Jinping’s high expectation for Hebei.

We must regard talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth.

Abiding by the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Hebei Province is vigorously implementing the strategy of making Hebei competitive in human resources, actively establishing the platforms for innovation and entrepreneurship, and striving to create a favorable environment for recognizing, favoring, respecting and using talents. The land of Yanzhao (Hebei Province) is gaining momentum for innovation.

Integrating the resources of enterprises with talents, pooling high-end innovative talents

Recently, at the Ding'an Bus Station in the Rongdong area of Xiong'an New District, the Bus No. 001 on the intelligently connected bus line 901 once again began the actual road tests before it officially hit the road.

“Working together with the teams from Beijing and all over China, we keep breaking new ground. We have carried out digital road and vehicle-road collaborative demonstrations, promoted the blockchain and big data to serve the real economy, and created convenient living through smart homes. Many of such scenarios are the first of their kind in China”, said Xie Bingxin, deputy secretary general and senior engineer of the Xiong'an Intelligent City Innovation Federation, who felt rewarding when talking about the work in Xiong'an New Area.

“The favorable research environment in Xiong'an makes me believe that great things can be accomplished here”, said Xie Bingxin to the reporter. People like Xie Bingxin will actively contact with and serve innovative enterprises around China, and continue to attract innovative talents to take root in Xiong'an around innovative fields such as the digital economy and smart transportation.

The essence of the new in Xiong'an New Area is innovation.

On May 10, while chairing a meeting on advancing the high-standard and high-quality construction of Xiong'an New Area, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that “we must make vigorous efforts in building new functions, forming new images, developing new industries, gathering new talent, and constructing new mechanisms, making Xiong'an New Area an innovation highland and a fertile ground for business ventures in the new era”.

Innovation-driven development is essentially talent-driven development. Xiong’an New Area deeply implements the strategy of training competent personnel as a priority, comprehensively improves the effectiveness of integrating the resources of enterprises with talents, and through the implementation of the package program of "introduction of Xiongcai (talents)", gathers high-end innovative talents, for the purpose of continuously improving its ability in innovative development.

Up to now, Xiong’an New Area has introduced 12 academicians and other high-end leading talents, recruited and attracted more than 100 professionals in key areas of planning and construction, selected and hired more than 3,000 professionals of the first-rate institutions of higher learning with first-rate disciplines, and added more than 25,000 innovative and entrepreneurial talents.

Not long ago, Xiong'an New Area set up 12 industrial talent introduction service teams by centering on the “5+6” industrial development directions and focusing on serving enterprises and talents residing in Xiong'an New Area.

What are the features of these service teams?

“Precise connectivity and targeted service are the characteristics of these service teams. Twelve service teams, including the Next-Generation Information Technology Industry Service Team and the Modern Life Sciences and Biotechnology Industry Service Team, ensure contacts by category with enterprises residing in Xiong'an New Area, establish the checklist and detailed records of the issues raised by these enterprises, study them case by case, solve them as soon as possible, and respond to these enterprises in a timely manner” , said Wan Min, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of Xiong'an New Area, and he introduced that Xiong'an New Area would make innovative mechanisms for industrial talent assistance service, provide one-window service, and link up the “last kilometer” of implementing the policies and serving the enterprises.

It is not only Xiong'an New Area which is seeking talents eagerly and is making extensive outreach for recruiting talents. Baoding City has created 7 key industry talent consortia, developing a new talent work model of “multi-party collaboration, and integration of the resources of enterprises with talents”. Zhangjiakou City has set up three talent alliances for the ice & snow, wine, and automobile industries, gathering more than 190 enterprises, institutions of higher learning and research institutes and nearly 100 top-notch industry experts, and providing a strong impetus for the development through the integration of the resources of enterprises with talents, etc.

Focusing on industrial development, Hebei Province is making vigorous efforts to create some scientific and technological innovation platforms, laying out the innovation chain and talent chain around the industrial chain, and providing a broad stage for talent development.

In the first quarter of this year, new members were added to Hebei Province's “National Brand” innovation platforms. Three national key laboratories, including CSPC, Yiling Pharmaceutical, and Yingli Group, were approved. Up to now, Hebei has more than 1,500 R&D platforms at and above the provincial level, including 13 national key laboratories and 322 provincial key laboratories. These innovative platforms have become “strong magnetic fields” for gathering talents, fostering new growth drivers and new strengths for talents to lead industrial development.

Through “incentive + deregulation”, unleashing the vitality of talent innovation

Currently, Deng Shanshan, General Manager of Hebei Sanzang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Sanzang Biotechnology”) is busy preparing for building the cell industrial park.

From the single stem cell storage to the deployment of IPSC-induced cardiomyocytes, stem cell beauty makeup and other industrial chains, the rapid growth of Sanzang Biotechnology is inseparable from the joined efforts of biomedical expert Pei Duanqing.

"If there is no ‘such an open competition mechanism for selecting the best candidates to lead research projects’, we would not dare to think about recruiting such high-level talents", said Deng Shanshan frankly.

In 2021, Baoding City released the first batch of project requirements through the “open competition mechanism for selecting the best candidates to lead research projects”. After the project requirements of Sanzang Biotechnology for the induced pluripotent stem cell research and development platform were released, Hangzhou Baifan Biomedical Co., Ltd. submitted a tender, thus attracting Pei Duanqing, a famous domestic expert, to join Sanzang Biotechnology.

Pei Duanqing helped Sanzang Biotechnology achieve a technological breakthrough in IPS-induced cardiomyocytes, opening up a new arena for enterprise development.

An open tendering system has been explored to select the best candidates, regardless of background, to lead the development of key core technologies. Since last year, Baoding City has taken the lead in Hebei Province in implementing the “open competition mechanism for selecting the best candidates to lead research projects”, and gathering innovative talents from all over China.

Robust talents provide a strong driving force for innovation.

“Hebei Province should advance institutional reform in science and technology, push ahead with the reform to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services in the field of science and technology, improve and implement the innovation incentive mechanism, improve the assessment mechanisms for advances in science and technology, and vigorously create a favorable environment for innovation, so that innovative thinking can flourish everywhere in Hebei”, proposed by Ni Yuefeng, Secretary of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of Hebei Provincial People’s Congress, at Hebei Provincial Science and Technology Award Conference on April 6.

Focusing on various aspects such as the recruitment, cultivation, placement, mobility and incentives of talents, Hebei actively solves various problems that constrain innovation and creativity, “delegates powers and relaxes limitations”, and enhances quality and efficiency.

“Applying” advances in high and new technology -- 10 universities, including Shijiazhuang Tiedao University and Hebei University of Science & Technology, have promoted trials to grant researchers ownership or permanent use rights over scientific and technological outputs at work, and achieved groundbreaking successes in the transfer of the “RMB-10-million-level” project of scientific and technological achievements;

“Motivating” the researchers -- guiding enterprises to implement medium- to long-term incentives such as equity, options, and dividends for senior managers, and industrial leading talents;

Making “flexible” policies for nomination and award – the system related to technology awards has been changed from the recommendation system to the nomination system, liberalizing quota restrictions, and breaking departmental monopolies;

“Delegating the power” of the accreditation of professional titles -- 149 employers in Hebei have carried out independent accreditation of senior professional titles. Since 2018, more than 15,000 professional and technical talents have obtained senior professional titles through independent accreditation;

……

All the reform measures are linked with one another, breaking down institutional barriers, and “incentive + deregulation” enable talent vitality to continue to be unleashed. In 2022, the number of invention patents granted in Hebei Province increased by 39.45% year on year, reaching 6.97 invention patents per 10,000 people.

Through attentive services, creating the best “ecosystem” for talents

What kind of experience is it to live in a talent apartment?

After leaving work on May 16, Wang Guotong returned to his talent apartment in the Fourth Zone of Shengshi Yucheng in Shijiazhuang City. The talent apartment consists of two bedrooms and one living room, with all kinds of furniture and appliances. “Everything was ready. When I arrived, I moved in with only my bag”.

Wang Guotong graduated from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Currently he is an engineer in the Satellite Navigation Department of China Electronics Technology Network Communication Research Institute. He said, “My hometown is in the place other than Shijiazhuang City. After getting a talent green card in Shijiazhuang City, I not only applied for a talent apartment, but also received preferential treatment in terms of medical treatment, and transportation, etc. These measures are very warm and considerate!”

In recent years, Shijiazhuang City has created and implemented the green card system for talents, providing talents with comprehensive social security privileges in terms of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. For a graduate with a PhD degree, a master's degree, or a bachelor's degree, if he/she has no place to live, he/she can enjoy monthly rent allowances of RMB 3,000, RMB 1,500, or RMB 1,000 respectively within 5 years; if he/she purchases the house, he/she can enjoy one-time housing purchase allowances of RMB 300,000, RMB 100,000, or RMB 50,000. For the purpose of making their lives more convenient, green channels are opened to them, and they are given priority to access to public services such as medical treatment, transportation, culture and sports, etc.

“We always bear in mind that the focus of our work is to resolve the most pressing difficulties and problems which are of great concern to the talents”, said Tian Jingxiang, Level-III Consultant of the Organization Department of the CPC Shijiazhuang Municipal Committee.

Up to now, Shijiazhuang City has issued more than 1,000 talent green cards of A category, and 13,000 talent green cards of B category. More and more talents who harbor ambitions are using Shijiazhuang City as a new starting point for them to work hard, grow up, and pursue their dreams.

“Welcome to Hebei, where there are great prospects for talent development!” In 2018, Dr. Hou Yunlong returned to China from Germany and joined Yiling Pharmaceutical as a high-level overseas talent. Over the past few years, he has participated in the research and development of a series of innovative drugs, and has set up three high-level drug research and development platforms, including the platform for cardiovascular drug research and development. Currently, he is the deputy director of the Yiling Pharmaceutical Research Institute and the director of the Pharmacology Department of the New Drug Evaluation Center.

The key to talent competition is the competition in the talent ecosystem. Hebei Province has firmly established the philosophy of “respecting knowledge and talented people”, and continuously improved the ecological environment for talent development.

Focusing on building three pillars including “new industry, big port, and high technology”, every year Tangshan City would select 20 key enterprises with outstanding talent work results, and gave each of them up to RMB 500,000 as talent introduction and training rewards. Langfang City has established a special “turnover pool” of staffing in public institutions for attracting talents, in which 100 turnover positions of staffing in public institutions would be specially used for brining in high-level talents, etc.

As a Chinese saying goes, “High trees attract phoenixes, and fragrant flowers attract butterflies”.

By the end of 2022, Hebei had issued more than 50,000 Yanzhao Yingcai (Hebei Talents) service cards; it had built more than 34,000 talent apartments, benefiting more than 40,000 talents. The role of talents in serving major national strategies, such as serving coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, and advancing the high-standard and high-quality construction of Xiong'an New Area, is becoming more and more prominent, and their contribution to economic and social development is increasing year by year.

Embarking on a new journey, Hebei will take more vigorous reform measures, improve the talent policies, create a better talent ecosystem, and build a fertile ground for gathering talents and unleashing all potentials for development, so that innovative thinking can flourish everywhere in the land of Yanzhao (Hebei Province).

Sources | Hebei Daily, and HEBTV News