GUANGZHOU: The capital of South China's Guangdong Province will redouble efforts to secure top-level professionals from home and abroad in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

"Guangzhou is focusing on innovation for sustained economic development, which requires well-educated human resources," said He Wuai, deputy director of the municipal personnel bureau, at a press conference on Friday.

"We are stepping up efforts to improve the mechanism for our services to top-level professionals, and the city aims to secure 10,000 overseas scholars in the coming five years."

He said the municipal government of Guangzhou is seeking opportunities to set up facilities abroad to seek overseas experts for the city's key projects this year.

And Guangzhou will make good use of the position as the host city of the annual convention of overseas scholars in science and technology, promoting the city to overseas Chinese students and winning them back to Guangzhou for a career start-up.

Guangzhou has hosted eight sessions of the convention, attended by more than 20,000 Chinese scholars who have been schooled overseas. Many of them have attended more than one.

He said that the municipal government of Guangzhou will set up a special fund for the development of human resources and will encourage overseas and private investors to get involved in the city's human resources development programmes, including overseas occupational and managerial training.

Source: China Daily