Chen Siqi

vankchensq@163.com

SHENZHEN continues to welcome talent from around the world as it strives to become a modern and international metropolis with global impact.

During the city’s annual legislative meeting, He Shanshan, deputy to the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress and director-general of the Shenzhen Nanshan Southwind Social Work Service Center, put forth a proposal that seeks to enhance bilingual information services in order to attract more foreign talent and better serve Shenzhen’s expat community.

Southwind is a leading social work organization in Nanshan District.

While the lawmaker recognizes Shenzhen’s favorable policies and living conditions for expats, she pointed out that there may be a gap between what the city offers and foreigners’ knowledge of Shenzhen due to language barriers and limited promotion channels.

“Many favorable policies for opening a company in Shenzhen aren’t limited to applications by Chinese entrepreneurs. Foreign investors can also participate. Yet it’s challenging to find information in English, thus the expats are barely aware of those,” said He.

Furthermore, expats may not be fully informed about international insurance options accepted at local facilities such as the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital due to insufficient dissemination of relevant information. Even her colleagues who have engaged with expat services haven’t noticed some of the information.

To address these limitations, He advocated for improved English explanations and called for more effective collaboration between relevant institutes and departments to ensure timely dissemination of critical information to a global audience.

Additionally, the deputy pointed out that many expats, particularly foreign students, had little knowledge about Shenzhen until they received offers and investigated the city.

He suggested that government departments should provide enhanced professional guidance in global communication and explore diverse channels, like leveraging civic efforts, to effectively promote the city on a global scale.