2,068 letters of intent have been signed at the Conference on
International Exchange of Professionals (CIEP) to provide foreign
expertise to China.
Hailing foreign experts' invaluable contribution to China, these
included 1,245 invitations to foreign economic and technical
experts, and 207 invitations to foreign cultural and educational
experts. The other 616 agreements were provided for Chinese
nationals to go and train abroad.
The conference, which ended in Shenyang Thursday, was sponsored
by Liaoning Province, the State Council's Office Revitalizing
Northeast China and the State Administration of Foreign Experts
Affairs (SAFEA).
From the original introduction of 1,000 foreign experts and
professionals annually in the early years of China's opening-up,
China's foreign expert population has shot up to 340,000, according
to SAFEA statistics.
Speaking at the conference, SAFEA spokesman Liu Yongzhi
recognized the massive contribution to China's development.
The SAFEA has approved 370 foreign professional exchange
businesses in China as well as 5183 domestic organizations that are
entitled to introduce foreign experts.
This is the fifth CIEP conference and the first one to be held
outside Nanjing. The CIEP already has 11,800 agreements to its name
and has become a key channel for introducing foreign expertise to
China.
As it grows in strength, the event is expected to play a role in
revitalizing China's old north-eastern industrial base by
attracting top-level foreign expertise and technologies.
About 700 foreign delegations from 30 countries - including
Russia, the United States, Japan and France?- attended the
conference, exhibiting more than 2000 high-tech cooperation
projects covering manufacturing, electronics, petroleum and
chemical industries, metallurgy and mining, health, environmental
protection, IT, agriculture and architecture.
In contrast to the previous four conferences, this year's CIEP
has had a more international flavor, attracting a large number of
delegations from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States,
with about 350 participants and 2,000 high-tech projects.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn?September 22, 2006)