Shanghai plans to employ another 10,000 "overseas talented professionals" in the coming two years to boost its development, a local official said Wednesday.

The candidates are students from abroad with a bachelor's degree or above, foreign specialists, and professionals from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, said Wang Anshun, deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Wang said "overseas talented professionals," particularly foreign specialists and professionals from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, though increasing steadily in number in recent years, account for a low proportion of the city's trained labor pool of 1.5 million.

The plan follows an earlier recruitment program of Shanghai that had already employed 10,203 students returning from overseas by the end of last September, nine months ahead of schedule.

China is witnessing a rise in the number of students returning home after completing their studies abroad for their own careers, as rapid economic development has created a good stage for talented people.

The number of employees who returned from overseas study now exceeds 60,000 in Shanghai, mostly majoring in administration, finance, IT, and material science. More than 4,000 of the returned students come to work in the city every year since the recruit program was launched in August 2003, local sources said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2006)