Guangzhou Vice-Mayor Lin Yuanhe yesterday said that he hoped to attract more top world scientific personnel and projects to this provincial capital during the Third Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology that opens here on Thursday.
About 1,300 overseas Chinese scholars from the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and Singapore will participate in the three-day event.
They will bring with them more than 300 scientific projects to seek domestic co-operation and technology transfers, Lin said.
The city's science and technology development is lagging behind Beijing, Shanghai and even Shenzhen, but Guangzhou can change this if the city can attract some top scientific personnel, projects and products, Lin said.
Addressing a news conference yesterday, Lin said the key point in competing with other cities is that Guangzhou must have its own personnel and its own high-tech projects, that it must not play second fiddle to other major cities.
Lin said Guangzhou would particularly like to encourage more skilled personnel in the electronics, information, software, biological medicine and automobile industries to settle down and work in the city in the coming years to help build a modern digital metropolis.
To this end, the Guangzhou municipal government will try to create a better work environment to help draw skilled people from outside to come to Guangzhou and contribute to its economic construction, according to Lin.
In addition to using salaries, housing and other preferential policies to attract skilled workers and management people to the city, Guangzhou will emphasize its mature market economy and advanced legal system.
"We promise that skilled personnel from home and abroad will be given the freedom to make full use of their professional knowledge or skills, and that their intellectual property rights will be honoured," Lin said.
Under the market economy, all skilled people will be equally treated and encouraged to compete fairly, Lin added.
As a pilot city in China's reform and opening up drive, Guangzhou has taken the lead in the country in attracting both domestic and overseas personnel in previous years.
In the past five years, more than 11,000 professional people from around the country have been attracted to the city.
Of them, more than 800 were senior scientific personnel.
Another 279 overseas professionals have also been drawn to the city and they are now playing important roles in its key enterprises and contributing to the city's rapid economic growth.
(China Daily 12/26/2000)
