As one of the “Most Attractive Cities in the Eyes of Foreigners” for seven consecutive years, Qingdao has many advantageous platforms to attract talent.
Located in the Sino-German Eco-Park, the Doctors Village is one of such platforms. Though it is only half a year from its establishment, it has attracted a lot of high-level talent from home and abroad.
Originally, the word “village” refers to a settlement in a country area. Now, it also refers to any community of people. According to a local official, it is called “Doctors Village” because most of its residents are high-level scholars, researchers and academicians with master’s or doctoral degrees. Its naming has two implications: one is the green and eco-living environment just like in the country; the other is the complete service and living facilities for the residents.
The residents of the Doctors Village are charged with an important mission, that is, to turn ecological concepts into reality and contribute to the sustainable development of the Sino-German Eco-Park.
The Doctors Village covers an area of 4.5 hectares, with complete office and living facilities including a service center, an academician engineering technology center, a smart park control and science promotion center, apartment buildings, rooftop salons, an art gallery and a fitness club to provide one-stop services for the residents.
There are all together six separate buildings in the Doctors Village, including three apartment buildings, a shopping center and other business service facilities.
In addition, the Doctors Village is also equipped with a smart city development platform, future city showroom, rooftop villas, a cinema and entertainment and catering services.
Unique Superiority
BGI Qingdao in the Sino-German Eco-Park is a well-known institution for genetic research. Lars Bolund, executive director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine of BGI Qingdao, who is the patent-holder for artificial cloning of pigs, and winner of Friendship Award of Chinese Government, is one of the residents of the Doctors Village, enjoying tax relief in personal income tax and other preferences such as CTM health care and home doctor service for high-level experts in the Doctors Village.
As the largest high-level genomic research institution in Shandong, BGI Qingdao has a research team of 198, with 71% of them having master’s degrees or above, including over 30 with doctoral degrees or above. Most of Lars Bolund’s colleagues enjoy the favorable policies in the Doctors Village.
High-level talent is key to the development of start-ups. The Doctors Village provides all-out support in project incubation, talent introduction and management, project financing and administrative approval for projects in the park.
“We are going to set up a municipal-level maker space or an incubator for technology-based enterprises this year. The lump-sum subsidy for business startups will be doubled from the original RMB 10,000 per person, and the subsidy for startup posts will be increased to RMB 5,000 per person,” said an administration official of the Sino-German Eco-Park.
Other moves such as Sino-German Park Development Fund, support of equity financing for platform companies, investment in the park helped to boost investment and financing for projects in the park.
Besides, the Doctors Village can also enjoy preferential policies in talent introduction and administration, including application for awards, individual income tax and staff employment.
Development Vision
In September last year, Ge Junbo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Biomedicine Institute of Fudan University, said he would set up in Qingdao a national cardiovascular device research center. “Talent is essential to this project, and the Doctors Village enjoys favorable policies for attracting talent. That is why we chose Qingdao for our project,” Ge said.
It is said that a dozen industrial parks nationwide attempted to get this project. The Doctors Village has provided 27,000 m2 offices for the project and 50 apartments for high-level staff.
In less than half a year, the Doctors Village has received one sixth of the high-level experts in the Sino-German Eco-Park.
The talent attracting practice in the Doctors Village has been adopted in the Guzhenkou Military-Civilian Cooperation Pilot Area in Qingdao. According to insiders, the Doctors Village receives many phone calls everyday asking for field visits.
The Doctors Village has set up a new goal for talent attraction: by 2021, to introduce more than 100 top-level experts or scholars, 1000 doctoral or post-doctoral researchers and senior experts, 10,000 urgently-needed technicians and 10,000 professionals to forge a high-end community brand.
