As the city held a summit on global talent, the Hong Kong Talent Engage began a two-day career expo on Tuesday, attracting professionals from the mainland and foreign countries.

A job seeker from Brazil said he had worked in two mainland cities, Shanghai and Hangzhou, for five years and had just come to Hong Kong through the Top Talent Pass Scheme.

He said the talent scheme makes it easier for people like him to work in the SAR.

"With this visa, I have this opportunity to come, and there's no limitations on what kinds of companies I can work for... This city is very business friendly. People have an entrepreneurial mind," he told RTHK.

The Top Talent Pass Scheme is one of several talent-admission schemes introduced by the SAR government, and even people who have not secured a job offer in Hong Kong can apply for it.

Another job seeker from Sichuan Province said she wanted to find a job in Hong Kong because of the labour market situation on the mainland.

"I could hardly get a [response from mainland companies]. I think I can find more opportunities here. I think I can improve my skills and have a better lifestyle here," she said.

A recruitment agency said support for workers was very important in order to retain them in a long run.

"I believe a lot of talent from outside of Hong Kong have got all skill sets that we lack or we're short of," said Eric Ng, chief strategy officer at the agency.

"I think all the corporations need to get ready so that they not only can attract them to come, but can retain the talent."

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Professor David Cardwell, echoed Labour Secretary Chris Sun's views that a focus should be on attracting talent from Southeast Asia.

"Some of the best talent, academic talent, are in Southeast Asia. The world just needs to adapt to that, to celebrate those talents, but Southeast Asia needs to make it easy for the world to do that as well," he said.

The CareerConnect Expo runs from Tuesday to Wednesday at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.