Language barrier, living costs pose hurdles to mainland talent eyeing Hong Kong

“Learning the local language is crucial for assimilating into a culture and society. Some employers prefer candidates to have proficiency in Cantonese, though they told me I can learn along the way,” said the 44-year-old, who speaks Mandarin and English.

“I firmly believe in my professional abilities in my field, but if I cannot meet the language requirements, it may limit my options in job hunting as I don’t have the edge some people from Guangdong may have.”

Hu said he would not relocate to Hong Kong until he had landed a job, citing the city’s high living costs.

The Top Talent Pass Scheme was introduced in December 2022 and has attracted nearly 70,000 applications since its launch.

Among the policy’s 55,000 successful applicants, more than 40,000 have already arrived. About 90 per cent of the larger figure is from the mainland.

The scheme accepts applicants who earn more than HK$2.5 million annually or have graduated from one of the world’s top 100 universities, in addition to having at least three years of work experience over the past five years.

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The median monthly income of professionals recruited under the scheme is HK$50,000, more than double the amount locals are earning, and generating the equivalent of 1.2 per cent of the city’s gross domestic product, according to a government poll released last month.

Charmaine Guan, 32, an engineering management graduate from Wuhan University, said she was looking for a fresh start in Hong Kong after working in Jiangxi’s fintech services industry for five years.

“Language is definitely one of my concerns, but the companies I have approached told me that being able to speak in Cantonese is a plus, but not necessary,” she said.

“But when you’ve spent enough time with people who speak Cantonese, through learning and observation, you can gradually acquire the language as well.”

The Jiangxi native said she was aiming for a monthly salary of HK$40,000.

Hong Kong offered attractive job prospects for fresh graduates with master’s degrees, boasting salaries that were 30 per cent higher than those on the mainland, Guan added.

“Also, the finance and IT industries in the mainland are very male-dominated and sometimes people are just not treating female employees nicely,” she said. “Hong Kong is a free and inclusive society where people have a strong sense of gender equality.”

Shenzhen resident Eva Lin Lin, who netted a job as an insurance agent in Hong Kong under the talent scheme, also attended the fair in the hopes of helping her friend find opportunities.

“The international financial centre status of Hong Kong is the most striking part for me to pursue my career here,” the 40-year-old said. “It also helps me to build networks for my trading business at home. But accommodation is just too expensive here.”

Lin said that rather than relocate to Hong Kong, she took the high-speed rail every day from Shenzhen to her office in Tsim Sha Tsui, with a single journey between Futian and West Kowloon costing HK$75 and taking about 17 minutes.

The mother-of-two said she would only consider buying property and settling in Hong Kong when her 10-year-old son and six-year-old daughter started their secondary school education in the city in a few years’ time.

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Officiating at Sunday’s event, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said the scheme highlighted the government’s effort to bring in talent, noting that 54 per cent of the arrivals had found a job in the city.

“It means there are still about 50 per cent of talent who are preparing to come to Hong Kong and also hope to find employment,” Sun said. “From the government’s perspective and in the foreseeable future, what we need most is to ensure effective matching between talent and job opportunities.”

But some employers at the event said they were struggling to find suitable candidates to fill their vacancies.

Liu Xintong, a representative for Zhejiang-based Yonei Innovative Material Tech, said the high-performance plastic components manufacturer was looking for business development managers with at least three years of relevant experience.

With clients such as Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s biggest maker of batteries for electric vehicles, the company was hoping to find talent with experience in the field, the business representative added.

“Talent is scarce in new emerging industries such as electric vehicle batteries and charging systems. That’s why we are here hoping for the best and finding the right people from around the world,” Liu said.

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Timothy Lam Wan-lok, a division manager at BOC Group Life Assurance, said numerous attendees with backgrounds in information technology had approached him at the event, but only some of them had the necessary financial expertise.

“I’m hopeful of finding the right candidates because insurance is just a part of our company,” he said.

“With our banking background, the talent we find will also be exposed to other areas such as opening accounts and handling mortgages, which may be appealing to some of them.”

Amid the city’s wider hunt for talent, a scheme that offers a fast track to residency for those who invest at least HK$30 million in city stocks or other assets, with the exception of residential real estate, recorded several applications since it launched last Friday.

Alpha Lau Hai-suen, director general of Investment Promotion, said InvestHK had received a few applications concerning the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, as well as more than 100 inquiries from professional firms and prospective applicants from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.