An overview of Chengdu Sports Center Photo: Courtesy of Chengdu City People's Government

Fifteen years after he left his hometown, Yu Zhibo, 31, returned to Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, as a guest at the 2013 Fortune Global Forum held in the city from June 6 to 8.

The recent development of Chengdu is "amazing," Yu, executive assistant to Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo - one of the world's largest computer manufacturers - told the Global Times on June 7.

"The banks of the Jinjiang River [which flows through the city center] have been turned into beautiful pedestrian parks, and a whole new city has been built up in the rural area in the south," said Yu, who left Chengdu for high school in the United States in 1998, and graduated from Harvard Business School in 2009.

Despite being an inland city, Chengdu has already begun fostering some of the best talent for both Chinese and foreign multinational companies, and now it aims to bring in more international students and talented people.

Coming of age

During the three-day forum, 74 local projects, worth a total of 112 billion yuan ($18.3 billion), were launched by multinational and domestic companies, according to the municipal government, marking Chengdu's coming of age as a magnet for global companies and talent.

The US semiconductor designer and manufacturer Texas Instruments Inc announced during the forum that it plans to invest up to $1.69 billion over the next 15 years to build a new assembly/test operation center and expand its existing wafer fabrication factory in Chengdu.

"The 2013 Fortune Global Forum has achieved its aim of drawing talent to Chengdu, which lays the foundation for attracting more and better fortune to the city in the future," Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, told people.com.cn on June 14.

Yu compares Chengdu to Seattle in the United States.

Both Chengdu and Seattle are situated in the western part of their own countries, and boast lots of greenery, a rich culture and a laid-back lifestyle, Yu said.

Chengdu is one of the major cities with higher happiness indexes in China, having been included in the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) and named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) City of Gastronomy.

Although smaller, "Chengdu is like Seattle in that it offers people the peace of mind to do some serious studies," Yu noted.

US chemical producer DuPont has already signed a pact with Sichuan University to co-develop advanced technologies such as fire-resistant materials, and will build an innovation center in Chengdu in the near future, said Dupont CEO Ellen Kullman.

Filling the gap

So far, the Sichuan capital boasts 52 institutions of higher education hosting 686,000 students, according to the Journal of Chengdu Fortune Global Forum 2013.

It also has over 100 secondary vocational schools with more than 280,000 students, according to the journal.

Despite the remarkable increase in the number of tertiary graduates in the last decade, demand for skilled labor in China is likely to outstrip supply by 24 million people in 2020, the US consulting firm McKinsey & Co said in a white paper released on June 6.

"If China does not bridge this gap, the opportunity costs could be more than $250 billion (about 2.3 percent of GDP)," McKinsey estimated.

To capture the opportunities generated by such a gap, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a London-based global professional body, has cooperated with 10 universities in Chengdu to offer its accounting courses, "combining undergraduate education with professional skill training," Wang Wei, a business relations manager in ACCA's Chengdu office, told the Global Times in May.

The ACCA class enrollment in Chengdu has grown by at least 30 percent every year since 2009, Wang said.

Similarly, Intel Corp, the world's largest chip maker, is also grooming its talent locally.

Bian Chenggang, general manager of Intel Products (Chengdu), told the Global Times on May 21 that Intel has been cooperating with local technical schools and universities in Sichuan to train production line workers and to work on research projects.

"If 10 years ago when we relocated to Chengdu [from Shanghai], we had a bit of concern, then we have no concern at all now about talent supply," Bian said.

"We can recruit matching employees for every kind of work locally, including specialists in such important fields as new material technology and electronics," he said.

What talent wants

While Chengdu is rapidly developing, there is room for improvement to attract more high-caliber talent to the city, experts said.

"For the best minds in this world, they don't want to come into a city to start from scratch. They need a comfortable and attractive environment," Yu said.

Established international cities such as Hong Kong offer not only high incomes and tax incentives but also make the newcomers identify with the cities.

In a bid to win over these talented individuals, Yu said, "Chengdu has to give a beyond-Hong Kong offer," finding ways for people to integrate into the city's rich culture.

"I'd rather pay the talented employees more to retain them," and they in turn can improve the production process by continuous innovation and helping to lower the overall production costs, Bian said.

Li Yuelin, a sophomore majoring in financial management at the Chongqing-based Sichuan International Studies University, won the best individual prize in a regional job-hunting competition in Southwest China held by ACCA in Chengdu in May.

She told the Global Times that her dream is to join a Fortune Global 500 company after graduation, because she wants bigger room to grow and become a person who can have an impact on society in the future.

With 238 global Fortune 500 companies already having opened offices in Chengdu as of the end of March, perhaps Li can easily realize her dream in her hometown, and even change the world by succeeding in this global city of the future.

As the capital's slogan goes, "Chengdu! Can do!"