BEIJING, Sept. 2 -- Shanghai will send its biggest employment recruiting delegation to New York, San Francisco and Toronto this month to attract North America expatriates and overseas Chinese professionals to work in the city.

The group, which comprises 27 companies and institutes, is scheduled to hold job fairs in those cities on September 9, 16 and 17, the Shanghai Personnel Bureau said yesterday.

Most of the recruiters are from large state-owned enterprises and educational and research institutes, including Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, Shanghai Electric, Tongji University and East China Normal University.

The group will be looking to fill 2,000 job vacancies, bureau officials said.

"Compared with sporadic online recruitment, holding job fairs where high-end overseas professionals are located is a more direct and efficient solution to quench Shanghai's thirst for talent," said Huang Weimao, director of the bureau's international exchange division.

The trip is part of a campaign that began in 2003 to attract about 10,000 overseas professionals to work in Shanghai every two to three years.

The first round brought 10,203 overseas Chinese to the city through November.

Officials said the bureau has received an average 600 work permit registrations every month since the second round of the program kicked off in December. The city has already fulfilled this year's objective to attract 5,000 overseas professionals, Huang said.

Expats or returning overseas Chinese who sign a work contract with a local employer can apply for a temporary Shanghai residency card, which entitles them to the same social benefits that locals receive, including schooling for their children.

Shanghai has also issued the highest number of permanent residency permits for foreigners on the mainland. Some 200 people have been granted a "green card" since 2004.

Last year, the city also began allocating 40 million yuan each year to subsidize research programs for Chinese professionals who relocate from other countries.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)