THE Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau can provide invitation letters for short-term visits of foreign experts to the city, simplifying the application and approval procedures at the foreign affairs office.

    The bureau will also simplify and adjust policies for foreigners working in the Qianhai-Shekou area of Guangdong Free Trade Pilot Zone following the 16 visa, work permit and residence permit policies in the free trade zone approved by the Ministry of Public Security.

    In the first half of the year, Shenzhen introduced 2,837 foreign experts, 70 percent of which work in the education and cultural industries.

    Most of the foreign experts are between the ages of 31 and 40 and come from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.

    The bureau issued 564 work permits in the first six months, representing an increase of 11 percent over the same period of 2015. It issued 2,273 foreign expert certificates, equivalent to issuances between January and June 2015.

    Sixty percent of the new foreign experts have bachelor’s degrees, 28.5 percent are master’s degree holders, and doctorate degree holders make up 11.18 percent of the total. A total of 66 countries and regions are represented, with 70 percent of the new experts coming from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. One-third of them come from the United States.

    Statistics show that 70 percent of them work in the city’s education, health and sports fields. Most of them teach at kindergartens, schools and training centers. The other 30 percent of new experts work in managerial or technical posts in the city’s economic, technology, engineering, trade and finance sectors.

    The city has 1,624 organizations hiring foreign employees, including 550 educational institutes. Schools and kindergartens account for 75 percent of the educational organizations that hire foreign employees.

    Among the 1,074 enterprises that hire foreign employees, 275 of them engage in manufacturing, one-quarter of the total. The manufacturing industry includes not only traditional manufacturing businesses, but also other nascent manufacturing industries such as pharmaceuticals, computing, electronic equipment and specialized equipment.

    Besides manufacturing, foreign experts mainly work for information transmission, computer service and software business, science and technology, and technology support companies. Nineteen companies hire foreign employees in transportation, storage and postal services such as Shenzhen Airlines and SF Express. (Han Ximin)