More than 100,000 Chinese have acquired licenses for practicing as construction supervisors, Vice Minister of Construction Huang Wei said on Wednesday in northeast China's Liaoning Province.
  
Calling these people "watchdogs of China's construction projects", Huang said at a national work conference that a much sounder education and training system need to be established.
   
He suggested that construction departments of various levels and relevant guilds design training plans according to local market demand, adding that companies engaged in construction supervising should also pay attention to the on-the-job training of personnel to improve the sector's competitive capability.
  
Huang said that this occupation was still being plagued by the shortfall of professionals with both management experiences and supervising expertise.
  
Official statistics show that the number of construction supervising companies in China has grown from 1,500 in 1995 to the present 6,200, whose combined employees total 270,000.
  
By Chinese standards, there are three levels of construction supervisors, namely supervisors, supervising engineers and chief supervising engineers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2005)