China will continue recruiting senior managers of major state-owned enterprises in public at home and abroad this year, said an official from the watchdog of China's state-owned assets on Saturday.

The Sate-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission is drafting a policy to speed up the public recruitment of senior managers for major SOEs, said Li Yizhong, deputy director of the SASAC, at a forum on personnel management of Chinese enterprises held in Beijing on Saturday.

The SOEs used to recruit their senior managers in the same way as the government selected officials when China was running a planned economy.

A breakthrough was made in September last year. Six large SOEs, directly watched by the SASAC, recruited seven deputy general managers and chief accountants by a public drive at home and abroad.

"Major SOEs will adopt competition mechanism to recruit their personnel. They will seek people in the job markets for all junior positions. As for senior ones, they will also go for headhunters," Li said.

The SOEs are facing tough competition with multinationals and domestic private companies in personnel resources, Li said, adding that a number of senior and middle-level managers leave the SOEs every year.

Those who left the SOEs have accounted for over 30 percent of the number of college graduates the enterprises hired every year since 1998, he said.

Large SOEs need to streamline their personnel management, improve the pay and the mechanism to inspire the staff as well as create a better working environment, he added.

The SASAC, a government body, will work out a temporary guideline to manage senior managers of these SOEs this year to meet the need of building a modern corporate governance in SOEs.

The government body will also work out a temporary guideline on the payment of major SOEs senior managers.

The annual pay of these senior managers will consist of a basic pay and a bonus, Li said.

(eastday.com April 26, 2004)