Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao meets some veteran foreign experts and their families at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Feb. 9, 2007, to thank their contributions and say new year greetings to them.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) talks with a foreign expert during a meeting in Beijing, Feb. 9, 2007. Wen met some veteran foreign experts and their families at the Great Hall of the People on Friday to thank their contributions and say new year greetings to them.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao on Friday extended festival greetings to all foreign experts working in China and expressed gratitude for their contributions to the country's modernization.

"We cherish and will never forget all the contributions that foreign experts have made to China's development," said Wen during a gathering with veteran foreign experts in the Great Hall of the People nine days before Chinese New Year's day.

Some of the foreign experts attending Friday's gathering have received the government's "Friendship Award".

Wen said China will stick to the policy of inviting foreign brains to contribute to the country's development and opening-up and encouraged government departments to improve the work and living situation of foreign experts in China.

The central government will fund the introduction of 10,000 economic and technical specialists and 20,000 educational, health and scientific specialists in 2007, according to the Ministry of Personnel.

The Chinese mainland has recruited a total of 400,000 specialists from foreign countries, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, and has dispatched nearly 40,000 qualified personnel to study overseas.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2007)