China has sent some 458,000 students to study abroad since 1978, and 135,000 of these have come back and made great contributions in all walks of life.

With an attempt to court and support more people with overseas study experience to return and serve their homeland, the Ministry of Education has established a series of favorable policies since the beginning of the 1990's.

The ministry issued a fund management regulation in 1990 in a bid to sponsor returned students to launch research programs and set up business. By June this year, the country had spent 400 million yuan (US$48 million) to help some 20,000 returned students start career.

To date, more than 50 business parks have been established nationwide, with favorable policies introduced to encourage returned students to set up their own enterprises.

So far, the returned students have established more than 1,300 enterprises.

The ministry also worked out a specific plan in 1996 to invite more Chinese experts studying abroad to come back to carry out short-term academic exchanges and research.

By the end of 2001, about 3,000 such experts have been sponsored to make academic contributions to China.

(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2002)