Under the Visage of the "Hundred-Town, Thousand-County, Ten-Thousand-Village Project": The Endogenous Dilemmas and Breakthrough Paths for Synergistic "Attraction, Cultivation, Retention, and Utilization" Talent Policy in the Northern Guangdong Urban Agglo

Abstract

The "Hundred-Town, Thousand-County, Ten-Thousand-Village Project" (HQT Project) is a major strategic deployment for promoting regional coordinated development, with its core in overcoming the urban-rural dual structure. The talent element is the critical variable determining its success or failure. The Northern Guangdong (Yuebei) urban agglomeration, as a typical area of unbalanced development within Guangdong Province, has long faced the dual pressures of the Pearl River Delta's "siphoning effect" and its own insufficient "hematopoietic function." The synergistic failure of talent work—"unable to attract, cultivate, retain, or utilize" talent—is particularly prominent. Under the new visage of the HQT Project, this paper focuses on the "endogenous" dilemmas of the talent policies in the Yuebei urban agglomeration, rather than merely the "external" siphoning. Using qualitative research methods, including policy text coding and semi-structured in-depth interviews in a typical Yuebei city (City C), this study reveals four major endogenous dilemmas hindering the full-chain synergy of "attraction, cultivation, retention, and utilization" (ACRU): namely, the "structural mismatch" between policy goals and industrial demands; the "spatial imbalance" of policy resources between central urban areas and the county/town domains; the "path dependence" on "prioritizing attraction over cultivation" in policy tools; and the "institutional obstruction" of "fragmented implementation" (tiao-kuai). The study argues that breaking through these dilemmas requires moving beyond the "piecemeal" element subsidy model and shifting towards a systemic, ecological governance paradigm. To this end, this paper proposes four breakthrough paths: First, constructing a "precision" policy supply mechanism guided by industrial demand. Second, establishing a "differentiated" resource allocation system with the "county and town domains" as the focus. Third, promoting an "endogenous" cultivation shift from "incremental attraction" to "stock activation." Fourth, shaping a "synergistic" institutional guarantee aimed at "holistic governance." This research aims to provide theoretical insights and practical strategies for late-developing regions to overcome talent bottlenecks and achieve policy synergy under the HQT Project.