China strives to reverse brain drain

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 23, 2003

China strives to reverse brain drain

When Dr Chang Zhaohua returned from the US to start his business in Shanghai five years ago, all he had was a small office, a desk and US$300,000 in registered capital.

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When Dr Chang Zhaohua returned from the US to start his business in Shanghai five years ago, all he had was a small office, a desk and US$300,000 in registered capital.

Today, Chang's company, Microport Medical (Shanghai), has more than 150 employees and is a shining star in Shanghai's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park with assets of around 150 million yuan (US$18 million).

"We found a home here,'' said Chang, 39, who had lived in the US for more than 10 years. "China's rapid economic development offers us the best chances.''

The number of "Haigui" (sea turtle) --the nickname for returned Chinese students -- is growing rapidly in Shanghai, China's commercial and business hub.

Statistics from the Shanghai Municipal Personnel Department show some 45,000 returnees now work in the city as high-level managers, senior engineers or business owners.

However, overall, China still suffers more of a brain drain than a brain gain.

Statistics released from the Ministry of Personnel show that from China's implementation of the reform and opening-up policy at the end of the 1970s to this October, about 580,000 Chinese have gone to more than 100 foreign countries to study. Of that number, 160,000 have returned.

Addressing a national conference which ended yesterday in Beijing, Zhang Bolin, minister of personnel, made it clear that China will formulate and carry out a series of plans to attract more overseas students back to China to work for the motherland's modernization.

"The plans will focus on senior talented people and high-level professionals badly needed by the country,'' Zhang said.

"The government hopes, with the help of returned high-level talented people, China can train and foster groups of scientists, scholars, senior managerial staff and experts familiar with international practices and rules,'' Zhang added.

Meanwhile, the government will increase efforts to introduce overseas intellectual resources into China through working out a programme to attract senior researchers and prominent professionals in the high-tech, finance, law, trade, management and high-level personnel sectors.

China is considering setting up a system for the assessments of such intellectual resources and working out processes to hire overseas high-level professionals to work for the government, Zhang said.

He called on personnel authorities throughout the country to form a mechanism to attract overseas students and talented people back to China.

More attention should be paid to introduce teams of qualified overseas personnel into the country, he said, hoping such introduction can help China accelerate efforts to develop high-tech projects.

A national data bank about overseas students and talented professionals will be established to streamline information and approaches for overseas students to return, the minister disclosed.

Zhang urged local authorities to follow related policies and measures toward the returnees, ensuring national treatments for applying to the government, securing scientific research funding, enjoying social insurance, sending their children to school and buying housing.

The Chinese Government, Zhang promised, "will also speed up construction of industrial parks for the returned overseas students and support them to set up their own enterprises and run businesses.''

To date, the Chinese Government has established more than 70 industrial parks for returned overseas students to start businesses.

In these parks, returnees can easily get loans to start business and their relatives can also get permanent residency.

China is more open today with its rapidly developed economy, and the once perplexing "brain drain'' is beginning to reverse.

A growing number of students who studied overseas are coming back to start careers in their homeland.

A official with the Ministry of Personnel, who declined to be named, predicted the number of returned overseas students will grow by 13 per cent in the years ahead.

"The high-gear economy in China and the high unemployment rates in many developed countries have caused China's brain drain to reverse,'' said the official.

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