More than 2,000 civil servants in Guangzhou attended a job fair Tuesday, to compete for 250-odd government positions.

This was the first job fair in the city that attracted so many civil servants, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

The State Council approved Guangzhou's plan to reshuffle its districts in May. Some districts will be enlarged and two districts, Dongshan and Fangcun, will be canceled and two new districts, Nansha and Luogang, will be set up.

Civil servants' positions will also be reshuffled.

The enlarged Liwan District, including the original Liwan and Fangcun, will have about 600 positions, while the two old districts already had more than 900 civil servants.

The enlarged Yuexiu District, including the original Yuexiu and Dongshan, will have 689 positions while the two old districts had more than 1,000 civil servants already.

Luogang District offers 60 positions and Nansha has 200 positions available at the job fair.

The government's personnel department said there would be some surplus in civil servants during the reshuffle but it said no one would lose their jobs. However, some will have to retire early or wait before they can find suitable positions.

The new Luogang District was the most attractive place to work, the report said.

Luogang, which used to be a development zone, had an economic growth of 19.6 percent in the first sixth months this year even its development was curbed by power shortages.

Many chose Luogang as its civil servants could have higher income than those in other districts.

 “The new Luogang District is about 30 kilometers away from the city center, so its civil servants can have some extra subsidies according to related policies,” said a director at the job fair. However, many civil servants would like to stay in the old districts as they were used to the old environment and do not like to travel far to work.

(Shenzhen Daily September 8, 2005)