Favourable policies woo students back ( 2004-01-02 00:00) (Xinhua)
China is witnessing a new upsurge in the number of students returning home
after studying abroad, with the number increasing by an average 13 per cent each
year, said Wang Xiaochu, vice-minister of personnel.
More students are expected to come back, experts say, thanks to the central
government's policy to continue supporting Chinese students to study abroad and
encourage them to come back and serve the country.
The sixth China Overseas Human Resources Exchange Fair, which opened in
Guangdong Province earlier this week, saw more than 3,500 Chinese students
coming from around the world, 10 times over the first fair six years ago.
The government will give equal importance to the training of talented
professionals and creating conditions for those studying abroad to return, said
Zhang Xinsheng, vice-minister of education.
Thanks to the healthy domestic economic environment and favourable policies,
an increasing number of Chinese students have chosen to return to start their
own businesses.
In Beijing, around 5,000 returned students have created more than 2,000 IT
companies in Zhongguancun Science Park, said Liu Zhuojun, deputy director of the
science park management committee.
In Shanghai, about 2,450 enterprises are run by returned students, with a
total registered capital of US$400 million.
In science-related governmental institutions, half the senior cadres have
overseas education background and more than 50 per cent of the academicians of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences had studied abroad, according to Liu Yanhua,
vice-minister of science and technology, who was also a returned student.
"China has provided returned students with a good environment in terms of
start-up capital and legislation,'' said Chen Youbin, a PhD holder at the
US-based Colorado State University.
Wu Qiong, a graduate of the University of Toronto in Canada, said it was
China's fast economic development and numerous business opportunities that
attracted them back.
Yet some students returned because of strong emotional ties with China.
Life was difficult in foreign countries because of cultural and social
differences, said Sun Genlou, from Canada's Saint Mary's
University.
