Professor addresses labor mobility issues in Yangtze River Delta

Promoting labor mobility and attracting talents to the Yangtze River Delta are important ways for policy makers to drive the integration of the region in the next five years, an expert said.

Yao Kai, professor with the School of Management at Fudan University, said the current density of human resource in the demonstration zone for the integration of the Yangtze River Delta is still low, and policies should be made to bring down barriers preventing people from moving into the region.

The country made the integration of the Yangtze River Delta a national strategy in 2018, and a year later set up a demonstration zone - which includes part of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai municipality - to launch pilot polices.

"The Matthew effect still exists in the current status quo of the delta, and competition for talents among different governments have created some administrative barriers for the labor mobility," Yao said.

"Each city should make industrial development plans based on their own advantages so that the development will be differentiated to avoid vicious competition of talents."

Yao highlighted the use of big data to allow precise matching of demand and supply of human resources for different industries.

Yao also suggested local governments work out a system that recognizes the professional qualifications and certificates obtained in different cities, and introduce more flexible policies for foreign immigrants to live and work in the region.

"The delta should embrace the mobility of talents in a more open and welcoming manner," he said.