In August, the State Council issued new rules which outlined preferential treatment for overseas Chinese experts who have returned to China.

The impending regulations are designed for overseas people who intend to make contributions without coming back to live in China, Yuan said Wednesday. He declined to give exact details about how this would be achieved.

Since 1978, the country has sent a total of 340,000 students to study in more than 100 countries and regions, 140,000 of whom have come back.

In recent years, China, whose booming economy requires large numbers of skilled people, has made every effort to mine its huge pool of overseas talent.

Next month, the ministries of personnel, education and science and technology, as well as Guangzhou municipal government, will jointly host the third Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology.

According to Lin Yuanhe, vice-mayor of Guangzhou, the three-day convention is aimed at providing a platform for exchanges between skilled overseas Chinese people and domestic enterprises which are desperate for experts.

The conference is open to all high-tech enterprises, high-technology industry zones, job markets and venture capital institutions, said Lin.

Both of the previous two conventions, held in Guangzhou in 1998 and 1999, were successful and attracted large numbers of overseas experts to invest in China.

Shanghai and Liaoning Province's Dalian have hosted similar conventions this year.

This shows there is competition to attract overseas experts among different regions, especially in the comparatively better-off eastern areas.

The local governments of Beijing and Shenzhen have both issued their own policies to attract skilled overseas workers. Some policies offered by the two are better than those offered nationally.

(China Daily 11/23/2000)