Overseas Chinese professionals encouraged to come back
( 2001-12-23 11:22 ) (8 )

Chinese Personnel Minister Zhang Xuezhong said on Saturday that it is the best time now for Chinese overseas trained professionals who live abroad to come back to China to start up businesses or take up an academic career.

Addressing a seminar on "China and International Competition for Professionals", the minister said the incomes and living and working conditions China provides for professionals trained abroad are much better than they used to be.

China has dramatically increased housing subsidies and research project financing for overseas trained professionals who return, the minister said.

More business and academic opportunities created by the rapid and sustainable economic development in China, as well as improved living and working conditions have drawn a growing number of overseas Chinese professionals back to China in recent years. The returned professional from overseas grew by 13 percent on a yearly base, said the minister.

Over the past two decades about 130,000 of nearly 400,000 Chinese professionals trained overseas have started their own businesses or taken up academic positions after coming back to China.

At the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the country's biggest research institution, outstanding young and middle-aged scientists returning from abroad have been given up to 2 million yuan (US$240, 000) as starting capital for research. The scientists have set up 2,000 companies, mostly in the high- tech field, at about 60 industrial parks set up especially for them.

In order to meet the growing need for professionals, China has been stepping up its efforts to train professionals while continuing to employ outstanding overseas Chinese professionals who have been a priority for the Chinese central and regional governments for more than a decade.