Society

'Lack of talent stifles progress'

By Chen Xin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-23 08:29

BEIJING - Despite having a large pool of potential talent, a lack of high-level innovative people is hindering China's attempts to build an innovation-oriented country, its top labor official said on Friday.

Yin Weimin, the minister of human resources and social security, said China's human resources structure does not match its need for talent to support its economic and social development.

Yin was speaking during a talent development forum in Beijing.

"A lack of specialists and innovative talent in some key fields has become a bottleneck in China's goal to build an innovative country and for the shift of its economic development pattern," he said.

In the country's telecommunications industry, high-level talent only account for 0.14 percent of the industry's entire professional staff, he said.

While in the equipment manufacturing industry, research and development (R&D) personnel only account for 1.26 percent of employees. The proportion is 6 percent in the United States and 5 percent in Japan.

"The shortage of high-level talent and R&D personnel has greatly hindered the improvement of innovation ability in key fields," Yin said.

To address the problem, Yin said supply and demand should be balanced by introducing a dynamic control mechanism.

And structural adjustments should be quickened to match the shift in the economic development pattern and to meet the need to optimize industry and upgrade it, the minister said.

The government's macro control should be strengthened by establishing a way to monitor the need for talent, he said, and the way people are trained should be improved to better match demand.

In addition, favorable government policies, such as widespread adoption of various incentive mechanisms and the improvement of the income distribution system, should be carried out to create a fair competition environment, said Yin.

"Favorable polices should also be made to encourage more talented people to go to remote areas to help with local economic and social development," he added.

China has vowed to increase its talent pool from the current 114 million people to 180 million by 2020, according to the National Outline for Medium- and Long-term Talent Development (2010-2020), which was released in June.

By then, expenditure on human resources will account for up to 15 percent of the country's gross domestic product, the outline said.

The proportion was more than 10 percent in 2008, according to official figures.