China is witnessing a new upsurge in the number of students
returning home after studying abroad, with the number increasing by
an average 13 percent each year, said Wang Xiaochu, vice minister
of personnel.
More students are expected to come back, experts say, thanks to
the central government's policy to continue supporting Chinese
students to study abroad and encourage them to come back and serve
the country.
The sixth China Overseas Human Resources Exchange Fair, which
opened in Guangdong Province earlier this week, saw more than 3,500
Chinese students coming from around the world, 10 times over the
first fair six years ago.
The government will give equal importance to the training of
talented professionals and creating conditions for those studying
abroad to return, said Zhang Xinsheng, vice minister of
education.
Thanks to a healthy domestic economic environment and favorable
policies, an increasing number of Chinese students have chosen to
return to start their own businesses.
In Beijing, around 5,000 returned students have created more
than 2,000 IT companies in Zhongguancun Science Park, said Liu
Zhuojun, deputy director of the science park management
committee.
In Shanghai, returned students, with a total registered capital
of US$400 million, run about 2,450 enterprises.
In science-related governmental institutions, half the senior
cadres have overseas education background and more than 50 percent
of the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have studied
abroad, according to Liu Yanhua, vice-minister of science and
technology, who was also a returned student.
"China has provided returned students with a good environment in
terms of start-up capital and legislation,'' said Chen Youbin, a
PhD holder at the US-based Colorado State University.
Wu Qiong, a graduate of the University of Toronto in Canada,
said it was China's fast economic development and numerous business
opportunities that attracted them back.
Yet some students returned because of strong emotional ties with
China.
Life is difficult in foreign countries because of cultural and
social differences, said Sun Genlou, from Canada's Saint Mary's
University.
(Xinhua News Agency Janauary 2, 2004)