Chongchuan district in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, unveiled a package of policies on Dec 17 to attract and recruit top professionals to live and work there and it also rolled out 20 measures targeting support for the development of businesses.

The policies cover 18 areas including the introduction of topflight professionals, employment of college graduates and securing concentrations of skilled workers.

Every year, a salary subsidy of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,722) will be given to enterprises that recruit talent in categories in short supply, for three years. Those offering full-time training in higher vocational colleges will attract a subsidy of up to 100,000 yuan. Eligible companies can enjoy 3-year rental subsidies when applying for staff housing.

In recent years, Chongchuan has prioritized talent as a significant resource, as well as recruited and trained a raft of high-quality people, in an initiative that has provided support for regional economic and social development.

In a bid to create a concentrated workforce with outstanding expertise and efficiency, the district researched and fully absorbed the experience of others, retaining previous successful policy initiatives and releasing new policies, to establish an improved business environment with better policies and services.

Officials said the new policies differ from the previous initiatives in three significant areas.

They have wider coverage – extending from leading and high-skilled talents down to a broad range of basic and applied talents. The suite of policies is more integrated, enabling more efficient management and enabling fine-tuning as circumstances change, officials said.

In addition, the role of enterprises in attracting talent is more prominent and the subsidies to enterprises are more robust and tangible.