Northeastern Jilin Province is seeking to recruit three individuals to well-paid posts, who will assist in establishing the provincial computer network, local officials in charge of staff recruitment revealed yesterday.

　　Once employed, the three persons will become China's first government employees with monthly salaries reaching up to 16,500 yuan (US,990). The average salary of a Chinese civil servant in the province is about 1,100 yuan.

　　The high salary policy, set by the provincial government, is part of a strategy to lure outstanding talents to participate in public service, said Wu Wenchang, the provincial government director of human resources.

　　Two of the vacancies are for general network engineers, and the other is for a senior Webmaster. All of them will assist in the establishment and main-tenance of the provincial network of public security.

　　According to a regulation issued by Jilin Province last June, government departments can employ necessary specialists to meet certain needs. In most cases, the employees hired in this category boast expertise in the fields of law, finance and information technology.

　　Although well-paid, the employees will have no administrative duties or powers. On the contrary, they will focus only on technical tasks, Wu said.

　　"The move to hire government employees is evidence of our need for talented people," said Wang Dajun, officer with the provincial department of public security.

　　However, the new move will not have a significant impact on the current civil service system given that the number of civil servants will be extremely limited, said Wu, adding that they will be hired on a contract basis to complete specific projects.

　　Wang Tongxun, president of the Institute of Chinese Personnel and Human Resources, attributed the recruitment to the transition of the function of the Chinese government and the fast development of science and technologies.

　　Chinese government departments will need more support from well-trained specialists to overcome certain technological hurdles when carrying out administrative functions, said the senior scholar.