By KITTY MCKINSEY
AS CEO AND FOUNDER of one of Hong Kong's few home-grown e-business software companies, Sherman Chui was looking across the border to mainland China for software engineers as long ago as 1995. At that time, their salaries were 10 or even 20 times lower than those of comparable Hong Kong information-technology specialists.
Chui's inlooktech.com now employs some 30 managers and 150 developers at its centre near Guangzhou -- twice the head count of the company's Hong Kong headquarters. Even though salaries on the mainland have soared fivefold since 1995, Chui says it still makes sense for him to recruit in China. "You go to China because of the sheer abundance of talent -- if you need 30, 50, 100 good people, you can get them," he says.
After several years of watching the export of IT jobs to southern China, the Hong Kong government is attempting to reverse the flow. It recently unveiled measures aimed at bringing mainland Chinese IT specialists to Hong Kong instead. It has relaxed immigration restrictions in the hope of filling an expected shortfall of 120,000 IT experts in the territory over the next five years.
Under the new rules, there is no quota imposed on the number who can come, but they will not be allowed to change jobs during their first year in Hong Kong. They will be eligible to apply for the coveted right of abode after seven years' residence in the territory.
"Hong Kong must adjust our immigration policy so as not to lose out in global competition," Security Secretary Regina Ip said in announcing the controversial proposal last month. Industry observers agree that Hong Kong's hopes of becoming a "digital hub" for Asia have been hampered by a shortage of information-technology professionals and salaries which look very high when judged on a global scale.
The visa scheme has been welcomed by the industry, but slammed by opposition politicians, who say it reflects the failure of the Hong Kong education system to train the right kind of people for the market. Paul Crosio, human resources director at global communications company WorldCom, welcomes the move: "This certainly opens up the market for employers' options and reduces the squeeze on shortage of professionals."
Democratic Party lawmaker Sin Chung-kai, who represents the IT sector in Hong Kong's Legislative Council, admits that 60% of companies he surveyed in the territory have encountered a shortage of IT professionals. He expects the salaries of mainland professionals could be as little as two-thirds those of Hong Kong professionals. While Sin has criticised the measures for political reasons, some in the industry will applaud anything that might bring down Hong Kong's over-blown IT salaries. "We have to deflate this incredible inflation in software engineers' salaries," says Joe Sweeney, Internet analyst at market researcher Gartner in Hong Kong.
Aside from the money issue, inlooktech.com's Chui praises the visa scheme as absolutely critical, saying "It's one of the best moves the Hong Kong government has made." He said his company will apply for visas for five or ten specialists, but will not ask them to move permanently to Hong Kong. Chui says it's more important for his company to have the flexibility to bring existing employees into the territory to work for periods of three to 10 months on specific projects.
The Hong Kong visa plan is only the latest evidence that the market for IT talent is increasingly global. "Talent is a passport and is nationality-blind," says Singapore's minister of communications and information technology, Yeo Cheow Tong. "We are in a global war for talent."
To win that war, Singapore is pressing for visa-free travel within Asia for IT professionals. In a separate initiative, Australia recently announced a streamlined process for IT professionals to get permanent residence status there to ease a shortage of skilled workers.
Back in Hong Kong, Chui sees visas for mainland Chinese as a first step in the right direction, but thinks that more incentives are still needed."Hong Kong has to open up visas for people from India, and give incentives to Hong Kong companies," he says. "If we want to compete with the U.S., we have to have tax write-offs for bringing in overseas talent. That's what the government has to do if it wants to make the dream of a digital hub a reality."
