Chinese employers and officials are calling for changes to the country's employment and residency laws to allow foreign students to work in the country.

A foreign student talks with a HR representive from the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games in the job fair. A special job fair for foreign students is held in Yonghegong Job Centre,Beijing December 10,2006. [Xinhua]

The demands from both employers and employees are challenging existing regulations that ban foreign students from part-time work in China, and grant a working visa only after a foreign graduate has gained work experience in his home country.

The weekend fair was attended by 51 employers including Hong Kong University and PepsiCo. and received more than 400 foreign job-seekers, said Li Xiaohong, business development manageress of China International Enterprises Cooperative Co., the organizer.

"By staging the fair, we aim to build a bridge between foreign students who wish to work in China and companies in need of international professionals," said Li.

The Sunday event coincided with the Chinese language proficiency test (HSK), she said. "Many students visited the fair after the test."

Sohu, a leading Chinese portal website, was looking for multilingual professionals for its coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games. A manager of Sohu's sports page said they would be expected to put Chinese stories into English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

The company had reached intent with four Arab students at Sunday's fair, he said without giving details. "It wouldn't be easy to find these professionals otherwise."

A student from the Republic of Korea (ROK) said he decided to work in China even though his home country also needed Chinese-proficient professionals. "I feel China offers more and better opportunities," said the young man, whose Chinese name is Xu Zaifan.

Beijing's education authority said about 40,000 foreign students are studying in the Chinese capital. Most of those who intended to stay said they wanted to work for foreign companies, particularly the China branches of the big-name companies from their home country.

Last year, 140,000 foreign students were studying at around 500 nationwide colleges and universities that open to foreigners.

The average salary expectation of Japanese and ROK students is between 800 and 1,000 U.S. dollars a month, while students from other parts of Asia demand 600 dollars, according to a survey by Beijing Morning Post.