Authorities from Shanghai's Yangpu district held recruitment drives in the United States earlier this month as part of efforts to attract foreign talent to help with the district's innovation ambitions.

Held on the campus of Stanford University and at the Global Innovation Exchange, a new academic institute in Seattle focused on science and technology, the job fairs promoted 70 positions in Chinese companies and 200 at universities and medical institutes.

This is the first time Yangpu has ventured out of China to recruit professionals who can bolster the development of innovation and entrepreneurship in the district.

According to the district government, more than 500 foreign entrepreneurs and Chinese students attended the two recruitment events. Several students also secured arrangements to work for companies in Yangpu following their graduation.

The Yangpu government plans to spend 20 million yuan ($3 million) every year to support overseas professionals who are willing to start their businesses in the district. Professionals who studied or worked overseas and are considered to be top talents will receive funding of 1 million yuan for startup projects along with another 500,000 yuan in housing subsidies.

Yang Rui, president of ENC Data Service, a scientific and technological innovation enterprise that has a training base in Silicon Valley in California, lauded the job fairs, saying that they would help boost the recruitment of foreign talent.

Xie Jihua, president of the National Eastern Tech-Transfer Center, said he expected more overseas talents and enterprises to aid Yangpu's transformation from an industrial region to a technology innovation center.

Yangpu has 20 science and technology parks and 79 innovation parks with a total space of more than 2.3 million square meters. It is also home to top Chinese universities, including Fudan University, Tongji University and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, along with more than 100 research institutes.

Wang Yi, founder of Liulishuo, a startup in Shanghai that leverages artificial intelligence and big data to help people learn English, chose to pursue his entrepreneurial dream in Yangpu in 2012 after working as the product manager at Googleplex for two years. More than 70 million people are using his company's app.

"I had the full support of the Yangpu government from the beginning," said Wang.

"The environment here in Yangpu is able to meet the needs of startups regardless of which stage of development they are at. I can see a bright future for my company here in the district."