Asia’s booming economy has created a special need for natives with Western experience
By Fred Cohn in Universum Quarterly 4/2010

The boom in Asia’s economy has created a corresponding growth in its job market. Companies are hiring not just in established business centres like Hong Kong and Singapore, but in the second- and third-tier cities that are now flourishing throughout the area. But whilst top professionals, even those without native language and cultural skills, have traditionally been able to flourish in the continent’s more cosmopolitan cities, employers in Asia now increasingly need – and demand – candidates who demonstrate cultural fluency. The situation has put a special premium on native Asians who have developed international cultural skills. Because of this, Asian expatriates – natives who are now studying or working abroad – are particularly desirable subgroup.

Luckily, many Asian expatriates are bound by family and cultural ties to their home countries. Companies who can target this population and make the right kind of value propositions stand a good chance of attracting these sought-after candidates.

If one has come out ahead of the global financial crisis, it’s Asia. Asian financial institutions, less involved than their overseas counterparts in the derivatives-based financial products that lay at the root of crisis, have been in a better position to bounce back. And with that recovery has come a boom in jobs. Local companies that cut back during the crisis are restaffing and eagerly recruiting. In the words of Bettina Wassener, Hong Kong-based business correspondent for the international Herald Tribune: “Asia is doing a helluva lot better than job markets elsewhere.

The situation creates a special degree of pressure for firms that seek top talent to staff their Asian operations. For sure, the talent pool is probably deeper than ever before; skilled people who in the past may have stayed in Europe or in the US are now looking east, attracted by the rise in opportunity. But the very best candidates certainly are looking at an ever-expanding selection of job possibilities.

In many cases, the most desirable candidates are Asian natives. International business hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore have long attracted top-tier foreign-born employees who may lack native cultural skills. But even though the area continues to attract Westernes, companies are particularly eager to hire native Asians for their Asian hubs.

the whole article can be read in Universum Quarterly 4/2010