SHENZHEN unveiled a plan Wednesday to end a lifelong employment system, which will affect 24,000, or 70 percent, of civil servants of the city.

Aimed at transforming the city's civil service into an incentive-oriented, performance-driven career option, the reform regroups public servants into three categories: management, administrative law enforcement, and professional and technical, according to Wang Min, director general of Shenzhen's human resources and social security bureau.

The reform, which affects the latter two categories for the time being, will disconnect the salaries of these civil servants from their ranks, Wang said.

About 24,000 existing civil servants will fall into the second category, making up 69 percent of the city's total. Only 16 people working for the city's observatory bureau fall into the third category at present.

The administrative law enforcement category will be divided into seven grades, all non-leadership positions, among which there will be no superior-subordinate relationship.

Their salaries will be related to years of work and performance.

The professional and technical category will include civil service officers, managers, assistants and other positions.

Promotions will be based on years of service, taking into account accumulation and job performance.

In the future, Shenzhen will recruit more civil servants through the appointment system, which has been piloted in the city since January 2007. Fifty-three batches of civil servants have been recruited through this system and the city will recruit at least 1,000 civil servants in this way annually in the future, Wang said.

The next civil servant recruitment drive will take place in March, said Lu Tao, deputy chief of the social security bureau.

By the end of October, Shenzhen had about 35,000 civil servants, in comparison to about 137,000 in Beijing. Shenzhen has been tasked by the Central Government to learn from Hong Kong and overseas cities in reforming its civil service.

Source:Shenzhen Daily