Shaanxi woos high-tech talent

China’s Shaanxi province is beckoning some of Silicon Valley’s top talents back to their homeland to help boost its emerging high-tech industries and drive economic growth through innovation.

A delegation composed of government officials and representatives of various enterprises is in the San Francisco Bay Area on a week-long visit to promote opportunities and recruit talent. Their trip will also take them to Detroit and New York.

“The more progress we make, the more important we find the role of talent is,” Hu Heping, Party chief of Shaanxi province, told a forum on Monday in Santa Clara.

The China (Shaanxi)-American Enterprises Innovation and Cooperation Forum aims to attract US hi-tech professionals to work in Shaanxi or bring their innovative projects there. Hundreds of people from the Bay Area business community attended Monday’s event.

Known for its long history and rich culture, Shaanxi is China’s energy capital, with natural gas reserves ranking first in the country, said Hu.

The economy is also showing strong momentum in growth, he said. Last year, the province’s GDP reached 8 percent, compared with the country’s overall rate of 6.8 percent.

The energy and chemicals sectors have developed into pillar industries of the province, while electronic information and equipment manufacturing have also advanced rapidly in the past few years, said Hu.

“Innovation is the biggest advantage of Silicon Valley, which attracts a large group of creative and forward-looking talent every year, including Chinese,” said Hu. “Many of the high-tech professionals in Silicon Valley are Shaanxi natives. There’s potential for talent exchange between Shaanxi and Silicon Valley.”

Ju Xiaodi, a deputy director at the CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee, also introduced incentives aimed at attracting high-level experts in a bid to bolster innovation-driven economic growth.

During the forum, 18 research institutes and staterun enterprises also hosted a job fair, offering more than 700 positions. The most soughtafter areas include Artificial Intelligence, bio-science, biomedical engineering and new energy.

Artificial Intelligence is transforming every industry and the government plays an important role in developing AI technologies, said Andrew Ng, a well known scientist in AI and deep learning.

The government should be supportive of enterprises and individuals in developing AI technologies, Ng said.