South China's Guangdong Province is striving to reach the goal it set to create at least 800,000 jobs in the province this year.

The ambition will help Guangdong bring the province's urban unemployment rate to under 3.5 percent, compared with 3 percent at the end of last year.

If the goal is reached, 250,000 laid-off workers will be re-employed.

The province created more than 638,000 job opportunities between January and July. And more than 140,000 laid-off workers had found new jobs.

Province Governor Huang Huahua recently urged local residents to further improve their capabilities and skills through training courses and study.

At the same time, Guangdong is also seeking large numbers of professionals and skilled workers from home and abroad to support its economic development, said a senior official from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Labor and Social Security yesterday.

Guangdong is specifically hoping to lure top-notch professionals from neighboring Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, according to the official who refused to be named.

Preference will be given to the fields of finance, management, consultancy, law, logistics and other service sectors, the official told China Daily yesterday.

The government of Foshan, a major city in the province, is currently talking to many travel agencies in Hong Kong and Macao to recruit more than 1,000 tourist guides to help lead the city's growing number of travelers to the United States, Europe, Canada, South Korea and other nations and regions.

Foshan lacks tourist guides who know both foreign languages and have knowledge of foreign affairs.

Last month, the Shenzhen city government organized a special job fair in Hong Kong, offering as many as 3,600 vacancies to local Hong Kong residents.

Shenzhen is in great need of professionals with international perspective and experience, especially in the foreign trade, legal, logistics and finance sectors, according to Shenzhen Vice-Mayor Chen Yingchun.

In addition to foreign-funded companies and joint ventures, major government departments, State-owned enterprises and financial institutions participated in the fair which attracted a large number of Hong Kong residents.

Three Hong Kong university graduates were recruited as formal staff of the Guangzhou Metro Corporation last month.

The official from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Labor and Social Security said the Guangdong provincial government has also decided to recruit residents from Hong Kong and Macao to work in government departments and bureaux in the coming years.

(China Daily September 17, 2004)