Incentives offered for foreign-trained Chinese talents

Authorities in the Beijing suburb of Yizhuang on Friday launched a 100 million yuan per year program to recruit overseas-trained Chinese talent to work for companies set up in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA).

Under the program, qualified Chinese recruits returning from overseas are entitled to an award of 100,000 yuan. They also get housing subsidies, a free medical checkup, and education subsidies for their children. Companies that employ these returned talents could receive an award of up to 500,000 yuan.

Xie Liangzhi, one of the returned talents working in BDA, said: "I graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and I quit my job in a US company to establish my own company in 2002. But the incentives offered by BDA attracted me to create my own business here. I am sure that there will be more people like me coming back from overseas seeking job opportunity in the current economic downturn."

BDA is now home to many start-ups. More than 300 talents have returned from foreign countries to work there. Yang Lin, secretary of the BDA Party Working Committee, said at a press conference on Friday: "Yizhuang economic-technological development area has 36 enterprises owned by returnees. Those are rapidly growing hi-tech companies which are in constant demand for IT talents. The BDA center will provide a platform for returned students and talents to further their careers in China."

Zhang Youlin, an official of Beijing's municipal government, said: "After the Beijing Olympics, the capital city has entered a new phase of development that includes a stronger demand for globalization talent then before. This presents a good opportunity for overseas talents in Beijing."

The recruitment program was initiated by the Yizhuang BDA Administrative Commission and the Beijing Overseas Scholars Center.

Zhao Xinxin, deputy director of BDA Administrative Commission, said: "Yizhuang was in the process of transforming from a common economic zone to a hi-tech one. Now we have 300 research centers. The commission will support those research centers to apply for new patents and maintain existing patents."

Investment in the BDA in the first seven months of this year reached $1.56 billion, up 116 percent from a year ago. Sixty-one percent of the total came from foreign-invested companies, including five big projects each with an investment value over $50 million.

Established in 1992, BDA has attracted more than 2,500 enterprises from 30 countries and regions investing a total of $18 billion.

(China Daily 12/27/2008 page10)