A forum was held at the China Financial Information Center in Shanghai on Nov 21 to seek expert advice on how to attract high-caliber talents for the high-quality development of Shanghai's high-end manufacturing sector.

Representatives from government departments, high-end manufacturing companies, financial and venture capital institutions, as well as colleges and universities, gave a range of suggestions based on their knowledge and experience.

The event was hosted by the Shanghai Talent Office, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Shanghai Office for the Promotion of Science and Technology Innovation Center.

It was undertaken by the Shanghai Securities News and the China Financial Information Center.

The event also marked the beginning of the Oriental Talents Forum, which creates a platform for high-level talents to access innovative and entrepreneurial resources in interdisciplinary fields. It aims to fuel industry-university-research projects with sufficient financial capital, thus further promoting talent development.

Talent forms core competitive power

Cao Yuanfeng, deputy director of the Organization Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Talent Office, gave a speech during the forum.

"Embarking on a new journey, Shanghai needs to go all out to accelerate the construction of a high-level talent highland; facing new challenges, Shanghai's high-end manufacturing industry must rely on talent to propel development and sci-tech innovations to drive development; in the new era, Shanghai sincerely invites talents to contribute to its construction," Cao said.

He added that it is necessary to give full play to Shanghai's "leading goose" effect in the national development of a quality workforce and make human resources a strong foundation for the city's core competitiveness. Only in this way can Shanghai turn itself more quickly into a socialist modern international metropolis with world influence.

The manufacturing industry is the backbone of the real economy. To make progress in this sector, efforts should be made to introduce and cultivate strategic scientists, first-class scientific and technological leaders and innovation teams as well as young sci-tech talents, outstanding engineers and high-skilled talents.

Cao extended a sincere invitation to elites in attendance, expecting talents like them to join in the development of Shanghai. The city is pulling out all the stops to build a world-class platform for scientific research, industries, exhibition, and cooperation, and thus can provide a big stage for young talents to make the best of their skills.

Contributing to Shanghai's manufacturing development

"The theme of the forum contains two keywords: one is talent, and the other is advanced manufacturing, both of which in line with the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China," said Ye Guobiao, Party secretary and chairman of the Shanghai Securities News during a speech.

Ye described Shanghai's current manufacturing development direction. The city is working hard to upgrade its industrial system through technological innovation. It is stepping up efforts to accelerate the development of high-tech industries and advanced manufacturing including the new generation of information technology, biomedicine, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, new materials, new energy, and ecological environmental protection. The growth of specialized enterprises that produce cutting-edge products in Shanghai enjoy favorable government support.

Shanghai is the birthplace of China's modern industry. Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau, our country's first national industrial enterprise, was set up right here, 157 years ago. It is the predecessor of Jiangnan Shipyard. After the founding of New China, especially since reform and opening-up, Shanghai has built the most complete, mature and competitive manufacturing system in the country. The system consists of the automobile industry represented by SAIC Motor, and the shipbuilding industry represented by Jiangnan Shipyard, the petrochemical industry represented by SINOPEC Shanghai Petrochemical and SINOPEC Shanghai Gaoqiao Petrochemical, the iron and steel industry represented by Baosteel, and the equipment manufacturing industry represented by Shanghai Electric.

The Shanghai Securities News and the China Financial Information Center are directly affiliated organizations of Xinhua News Agency stationed in Shanghai. Ye said that the two units will give full play to their roles to contribute to  Shanghai's development of a talent highland, a science and innovation center and help promote advanced manufacturing industry.

Flexible employment helps attract leading talents

Wang Jinzhao, director of the Industry Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, gave a keynote report during the event. He stated that the foundation of industrial development is science and technology, while the foundation of technological innovation is talents.

"It is imperative to accelerate the cultivation of domestic talents and the introduction of overseas talents and increase incentives for them. Enterprises should be supported to recruit talents from around the world in an inclusive and diversified way," Wang added.

Wang shared his insights on how to realize new industrialization and mainly discussed possible solutions with respect to talent development.

Wang believes that it is necessary to expedite domestic talent training, speed up the pace of reform and adjustment of higher education-related disciplines, and smooth the flow of talents among universities, scientific research institutions, enterprises and public departments.

Another focus is to strengthen incentives for talents, improve the distribution system of intellectual property rights, and encourage innovation by promoting the implementation of equity incentives in State-owned technology enterprises and clarifying the ownership of State-funded intellectual property rights. Wang emphasized using flexible means to attract returned overseas talents, allowing them to work either full-time or part-time or cooperate as a project partner.

Considering Shanghai's leading advantages in high-end manufacturing fields such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, Wang said Shanghai should carry out pioneering experiments and bold attempts in key areas in order to take the lead in realizing new industrialization and set good examples for regions. Shanghai is poised to become the central node of the domestic market and the strategic connection of domestic and foreign markets that boost each other in China's new development pattern.

Shipbuilding industry has ambitious goal

"Our country has become the world's largest shipbuilding country, and is moving towards the world's best shipbuilder," said Du Gang, director and deputy secretary of the leading Party members' group of China State Shipbuilding Corporation.

Shanghai is endowed with abundant resources and has a clear strategic positioning that favors shipbuilding industry development. Now Shanghai has become an internationally recognized international shipping center and will continue to expand its strengths until it becomes a shipbuilding center able to serve globally.

According to Du, China State Shipbuilding will promote its plans for entering prospective sectors including deep-sea mining, polar equipment, and deep-sea aquaculture, and make efforts to develop key supporting facilities such as high-end ships and power electromechanical equipment. It plans to establish offshore engineering equipment and ship design software R&D bases in Shanghai with the hopes of fueling the transformation of Shanghai's shipbuilding industry as it heads toward high-end, green and intelligent development.

Du said the group will promote resource allocation and integration of the shipbuilding industry, as well as attract foreign high-quality ship design and supporting enterprises to settle in Shanghai. All these efforts are expected to improve Shanghai's influence in the global shipbuilding industry and help accelerate the development of Shanghai's modern industrial system.

Gathering talents to build smart electrical innovation highland

Zhang Xusheng, member of the standing committee of the Party committee and deputy general manager of China Electrical Equipment Group also delivered a speech on attracting top-notch talents.

The group will implement its talent and innovation-driven development strategy in five ways, according to Zhang. First, the group will play an active role in the construction of Shanghai's "five centers", accelerate the gathering of high-end innovation resources, and strengthen its innovation capacity. Second, it will create a solid source of innovation by introducing and cultivating first-class talents through multiple ways. Third, it will not only develop independent technologies but also strive to make breakthroughs in core technologies. Fourth, an incentive mechanism rewarding talent innovations should be established. Fifth, the group will endeavor for advances in emerging industries and better support local economic development.

In fact, the group has been taking various measures to incentivize innovative talents. For example, the group has a rule that the salary growth rate of R&D personnel should not be lower than that of other employees, and the average salary of R&D personnel should increase to double what other employees earn within two years. R&D projects are required to have responsible leaders and should compete with each other. In the new system, researchers and those who apply their technology results will have to share risks and benefits together, said Zhang.

Fostering talents to meet auto industry challenges

One in three "Chinese cars" sold overseas is "made by SAIC Motor", according to Wang Xiaoqiu, president and deputy secretary of the Party committee of SAIC Motor.

"The global auto industry is undergoing momentous changes of a scale unseen in a century and it is happening at an increasingly rapid pace. China's auto industry is also experiencing profound changes," said Wang.

Under this context, SAIC Motor, as the largest domestic auto group in terms of production and sales, will strive to build the "hard power" of technology products and "soft power" of talent teams, paving the way for leading the race in establishing electric intelligent networks.

SAIC Motor focuses on improving its market-oriented incentive and restraint mechanism to encourage innovation in the workplace. To keep up with the latest industrial development trends, the group has stepped up the construction of talent pools in new energy and intelligent network connection with continuous efforts to optimize the structure of its workforce.

In the past three years, the carmaker's R&D teams have received nearly 8,000 new members.

SAIC Motor has also set up a "seed fund" to encourage employees to use corporate facilities to conduct innovative research. It hopes to turn a world-renowned automotive company into an employee innovation paradise.

At present, SAIC Motor has more than 1,500 management personnel in charge of international operations and has sent more than 200 leaders overseas for developing various businesses.

Education should look at actual developmental demands

At the event, Ding Wenjiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave a mini lecture on the function and application of magnesium, envisioned bright prospects for related industries, and suggested methods of training for required talents.

"Using magnesium alloys can reduce the weight of tanks by 20 percent, satellites by five percent, and fighter jets from 34 percent to 27 percent.... Lightweight has brought new application opportunities for magnesium," said Ding.

As the lightest metal structural material, magnesium alloys are promising structural materials for aerospace, transportation, electronic information, energy power, biomedicine, and major national infrastructure projects.

Magnesium can also be used for hydrogen energy projects, demonstrating broad application prospects, said Ding.

"Magnesium is a metal material with the highest hydrogen storage capacity, which can be used to solve the big problem of hydrogen transportation," Ding explained. Using magnesium to store and transport hydrogen has many advantages other materials cannot achieve. In addition, when magnesium releases hydrogen, the process simultaneously completes the purification and purification of hydrogen, and the cost is only one third of that using traditional methods.

Ding noted that the current talent cultivation mode, which separates college and university students from projects and real engineering industry demands, needs to be changed. He stressed the importance of building a training and evaluation mechanism that pays equal attention to frontier science and engineering application.