Over 14,000 highly educated people flock to an annual job fair in Ningbo, Zhejiang province on Sept 20, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province has become more competitive in the country's talent market, according to a report by the job-hunting company Liepin.

The net inflow rate of talents in Ningbo was 9.17 percent last year, second among all Chinese cities, statistics showed. One year ago, the ranking was around 20th.

Over the past year, Ningbo introduced nine full-time academicians from home and abroad, and over 180 leading professionals listed in national programs. Nearly 90 percent of the talents went to private companies and 51.5 percent entered machine manufacturing, which is highly consistent with the city's industrial plan.

Behind the dramatic improvements were a series of policies and measures the city has deployed to attract talented people, including a batch of cooperation agreements with top universities and research institutes, and a round of job fairs in major Chinese cities.

Ningbo and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sign an agreement on the construction of a college of materials engineering in Ningbo, Zhejiang province on Feb 12, 2018. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]