State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Beijing will independently decide how much to pay their staff as long as they are financially capable of doing that, said Beijing vice-mayor Liu Haiyan.

The Beijing Municipal Government is working on a set of guidelines which will soon be made public, said the vice-mayor at a meeting attended by more than 400 SOE managers and governmental officials over the weekend.

Beijing's industrial trade has employed 16,000 college graduates since 1982. Only 1,015 of them, however, are still engaged in the trade. "The outflow of professionals has badly restrained the reform and development of the SOEs," Liu noted, urging the SOEs to take full advantage of the human resources in Beijing and make more efforts in attracting talent. (Xinhua)