Taizhou, in East China's Zhejiang province, will implement an upgraded recruitment initiative, the 500 Elite Plan, that will provide greater support for wooing high-profile talents and businesses, the local government announced on Wednesday.

The announcement said that the city aims to recruit 200 high caliber professionals and entrepreneurs and to lure 60 companies to settle down this year.

Recruiting professionals in the seven pillar sectors in the city will be prioritized. The sectors are automotive and parts manufacturing, aviation, molds and plastics, medicine and medical chemistry, intelligent toilets, pumps and motors and sewing equipment.

Meanwhile, more efforts will be made to recruit talents in strategic emerging industries such as information technology, intelligent manufacturing and industrial digitalization.

Local government also plans to put more emphasis on attracting more innovative talents, projects, teams and companies to settle down in the city.

Notably, qualifications for talents in the fields such as education, healthcare, social science and culture publication will be relaxed while a stricter and more flexible system will be in place to regulate application of government subsidies and rewards.

The 500 Elite Plan, a recruitment initiative launched by the Taizhou government in 2011, has been updated nine times thus far.

Taizhou has seen outstanding results in expanding its talent pool in recent years, which has helped fuel its vibrant economic growth. To date, 894 talents and 287 innovation and entrepreneurship projects have settled down via the 500 Elite Plan. In 2018 alone, 97 projects worth 760 million yuan ($112.6 million) landed in the city, up by 44.8 percent and 66.5 percent respectively.

A job fair held in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province on Feb 10. [Photo/zjnews]