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Financial aid to lure top overseas Chinese

By Cai Cai (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-26 08:03

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The city government will offer up to 5 million yuan in financial aid next year to top overseas Chinese professionals who settle in Guangzhou and start businesses, according to Zhan Decun, director of general office of Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology.

The funds are earmarked for companies, scientific research institutes, and research and development centers in Guangzhou, Zhan said.

In addition to preferential polices, qualified returning overseas Chinese will be personally rewarded with 200,000 yuan each.

Currently, the city government gives 100,000 yuan to each returned overseas Chinese talent who starts a business in the city.

"Big growth of the government financial aid aims to compete with Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other mainland metropolises that have greatly raised their financial aid to attract Chinese experts, scholars and researchers who are now studying and working abroad," Zhan said.

The city government will also create an even better business and living environment for them and further simplify procedures for taxation and business registration, Zhan said.

"The government at all levels will offer better services to returning Chinese and help them overcome their difficulties in housing, education, employment and medical care," Zhan added.

Zhan said he believes such scientists, researchers, scholars and experts have great potential for their personal development in Guangzhou as many business opportunities have been created in the city, which is opening wider to the outside world.

Guangzhou, which is enjoying a rapid economic growth, needs to attract a large number of professionals from home and abroad to continue its rapid economic development, Zhan said.

Guangzhou is particularly keen to attract Chinese scholars and experts schooled overseas to work in electronics, bio-medicine, new and hi-tech, new materials, environment protection, finance, logistics and management consultancy, which plays an increasingly important role in Guangzhou's economic development.

Zhan made his remarks at the 11th Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology at the city's Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center held from December 26 to 28.

Co-organized by the ministries of education, science and technology, and personnel as well as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the municipal government of Guangzhou, the event is expected to become a major channel for students studying abroad to come back to China to start their careers, as well as a platform for Guangzhou and other mainland cities to recruit top overseas Chinese experts and scholars.

Organizers are encouraging the nation's top 500 enterprises, along with medium-sized and smaller companies, to participate in the event every year.

They said the event will become a multi-dimensional forum for scholarly exchange, investment opportunities and research commercialization.

More than 2,000 Chinese talent who are working and studying in 28 countries and regions participated in the event that ended yesterday. They returned to Guangzhou mainly from the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and Singapore.

Fifty-two percent of them hold doctorate degrees, while 43 percent have master's degrees.

Guangzhou attracted more than 15,000 overseas Chinese talents by the end of 2007.

To date, more than one million overseas Chinese scholars are studying or doing research abroad. About 250,000 have returned to their homeland.