Ningbo hotspot for top-tier professionals

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province has emerged as a magnet for high-end professionals in recent years.

In 1999, the city established its first postdoctoral workstation - the Ningbo Postdoctoral Workstation of Zhejiang University - in cooperation with Zhejiang University. That figure has now climbed to 212, attracting a total of 1,063 postdocs, official data show.

The group of talent has 1,365 patents and has developed 138 new products above the municipal level. Their research results have generated over 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) in output value to date.

One such example is Xia Yin, general manager of the R&D department of Ningbo Exciton Technology Co Ltd.

Born in Cixi, a county-level city in Ningbo, Xia chose to work in his hometown after graduating from East China University of Science and Technology with a doctoral degree in 2014.

He landed his job at Exciton while attending a recruitment fair targeting high-end professionals during the Ningbo Talent, Science and Technology Week, an annual event held by the city.

This year, Xia's role has changed from an employee to an employer while attending the week-long recruitment event.

Over the past six years, Xia has applied for 70 to 80 patents, including more than 20 related to small-sized optical films.

Exciton, which specializes in the R&D of optical films, set up its postdoctoral workstation in 2013, which has since employed a total of nine postdocs.

To date, the postdoctoral program has helped the company generate an additional 280 million yuan in profit and create more than 200 jobs.

A head official at the Ningbo municipal bureau of human resources and social security revealed that more than 100 postdoctoral stations will be built by 2025, bringing the total number of postdoctoral stations in the city to more than 300.

Ningbo is home to 39 enterprises with the highest market shares in their niche markets in China and special efforts will be made to help the 14 enterprises without postdoctoral stations among them to set up one, he added.