Hu Jianhua, 45, formerly an administrative official at a university in the east China province of Jiangsu, became the chief engineer of the Radio Film and Television Bureau in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Hu was among the 28 officials appointed this year by Guizhou Province after a series of performance assessments. Like Hu, 17 of the newly appointed officials were recruited from more developed regions, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou.

"China is now accelerating its development of the vast western regions. I hope I can really contribute something to the province by using my knowledge and experience," Hu, the engineering doctorate degree holder, said.

Beginning Thursday, the newly selected officials in Guizhou Province were gradually taking office. Their average age is 41 and 24 out of the 28 people have master degrees or above.

Besides Guizhou Province, many other western provinces of China are offering higher positions to attract officials from the more developed central and east regions.

In southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, six officials were imported from coastal regions to become county or district heads.

In 2008, the northwestern province of Shaanxi selected 10 mayor's assistants from the country's financial management system.

"Normally, there are strict standards to follow when we promote officials, but to attract officials from other more developed regions, the province made exceptions for those who have extraordinary backgrounds or experiences to offer them higher levels," said an official with the organization department of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), who declined to be named.

Liu Baochang is one of the officials who were promoted by two levels from being a deputy director of a city's foreign affairs office in Shandong Province to become the deputy director of the foreign affairs office of Guizhou Province.

"The new job offered me a greater platform, and I jumped at the opportunity," Liu added.

The efforts from the western regions have gained support from the central government. In 2007, the CPC Central Committee issued a suggestion to strengthen the development of talents in western regions, bolstering the exchange of officials from the coastal regions to the west regions.

The bottleneck of further development in the western region is partly a result of the lack of management personnel and specific talents, said Xiong Zongren, a researcher at the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences.

"So now we import officials from the coastal regions to use their advanced ideas," said Xiong.

"How to help these imported officials to blend in the local environment as fast as possible, and use their brains to better promote the local management system, is now another challenge for the western regions," Xiong said.