Liu Baoying, chief of Specialized Technological Talents Administrative Division with the Chinese Ministry of Personnel, said at least 743 new postdoctoral centers will be constructed over the next four years to accommodate the increasing number of postdoctoral research students.

Liu was in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, to attend the inauguration of a material science and engineering postdoctoral center attached to Nanchang University. The senior Chinese personnel official said China would continue to introduce favorable policies to encourage foreign nationals and attract Chinese students who have obtained doctorates in foreign universities to do postdoctoral research in China in a bid to enlarge the space for international exchanges for the country's postdoctoral research work.

Postdoctoral research centers are considered a successful way to train the exceptionally talented and also an effective way to organize high-level scientific and research activities. China believes that these centers will play an important role in promoting the country's strategy of rejuvenating China through science and education, as well as in attracting, training and using highly professional people. Postdoctoral centers in China are mostly built with government financing and are attached to institutions of higher learning. But as the market economy expands, more and more businesses in the country are joining the government's efforts and are willing to lavish large sums of money for building postdoctoral research centers to help tackle key tasks for their businesses.

At present, there are 1,204 postdoctoral research centers in China, with 7,000 working research students, and of the total, 257centers are built with corporate financing.

(People?s Daily November 15, 2001)