The Zhoushan municipal government held an online matchmaking conference on March 7 to attract high-end talents while preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The organizing committee invited 38 universities and companies to participate in the conference.

The companies provided more than 100 job opportunities, with salaries ranging from 150,000 yuan ($21,620) to 1 million yuan.

The universities offered 87 job opportunities, more than 80 percent which were involved in marine-related areas.

According to local authorities, a total of 311 skilled workers from home and abroad participated in the online conference, 71 of whom had a doctoral degree.

The workers were involved in several cutting-edge fields, including marine electronic information, marine biology, and high-end equipment production.

"I attended the matchmaking conference to find a good project cultivation platform for two of my research projects focusing on high polymer chemistry," said Yi Zhihui, a postdoc at the University of Toronto in Canada.

After a short chat with Yi, an official in charge of the conference decided to recommend him as an attendee of the next round of negotiations.

Another online matchmaking conference will be held on March 14, according to officials.