Fifty foreign experts were honored with the Friendship Award by
China at a ceremony in Beijing on Thursday for their contributions
to the country's economic and social development.
Vice Premier Wu Yi,
who presented the awards, said at the ceremony that the foreign
experts brought China advanced technology, expertise and management
methods, all of which are needed in China's process of
modernization.
China sincerely welcomes foreign experts to work here and will
provide them with a more favorable living and working environment
and services, Wu said, noting that China's comprehensive social and
economic development will help create enormous opportunities for
foreign experts to work in China, and contribute more to world
peace and development.
While China attaches great importance to developing domestic
expertise under the strategy of nurturing talent, she acknowledged
that the country will continue to make more efforts to draw skilled
foreigners by further improving the conditions for them, by
facilitating their transfer from their home countries through
improved regulations, and by protecting their interests.
The "Friendship Award" is the highest honor that the Chinese
government confers to foreign experts who have made outstanding
contributions to China's economic and social progress. A total of
850 foreign experts from 55 countries have received the award since
1991.
More than 200,000 foreign experts come to China to work each
year.
This year's award winners were from 21 countries including
Australia, Britain, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Republic of
Korea, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States, 35 are
experts in the sphere of economic technology, and the other 15 work
in the culture and education fields, according to sources with the
State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.
(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2005)
