China's Dalian city, which is competing with Beijing to be the IT outsourcing centre in China, has started a worldwide talent hunt for software professionals.

Xia Deren, mayor of the city, told China Daily that the four-month recruitment will start in September in six Chinese cities, Canada, the US, Singapore, India, and Japan.

"The shortage of talent has become an issue that we have to solve," said Xia. The northeast coastal city, neighbouring South Korea and Japan, aims to recruit 10,000 engineers for more than 100 software companies, including up to 3,000 for senior positions.

The situation reflects the big gap between the city's ambition to become a major global software outsourcing destination and the lack of qualified software engineers.

Dalian, based on a report by top German consultancy Roland Berger, aims to develop a software industry with revenues of 80-100 billion yuan (US$9.87-12.33 billion) by 2012 and exports of US$4 billion.

It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people will be employed in the industry.

The city, where many residents are fluent in Japanese and Korean, has become the most favoured overseas destination for companies from the two countries which want to outsource software contracts to low-cost regions.

The unique geographic advantage has attracted 22 of the Fortune Global 500 companies to set up software and service centres in the city.

The city has seen software sales rise from 200 million yuan (US$24.6 million) in 1998 to 7 billion yuan (US$863 million) last year, which are forecast to reach 10 billion yuan (US$1.23 billion).

IBM, which set up a software centre in Dalian in 2003, plans to have 20,000 engineers in five years, but only attracted 600 by the end of last year.