China welcomes more talented foreign people to come to take part in its construction, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing Thursday.

  
China will improve its laws and regulations to create better working and living conditions for foreign experts, Wen said while meeting with the 84 foreign experts who won this year's " Friendship Award," presented by the Chinese government.
  
Extending congratulations, greetings and thanks to the award winners, Wen said that this year marks 55th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the country has made remarkable achievements in the past half century.
  
He said that China's reform and modernization cause belongs to the Chinese people and to the world. Foreign experts and friends have worked in China and given their support and help, and this has been remembered and cherished by the Chinese people, he said.
  
He stressed that China's opening-up policy will not change, and the welcome for the foreign experts will remain unchanged.
  
The "Friendship Award" is the supreme award the Chinese government confers to those foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China's economic and social progress. Former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai first gave the credential to foreign experts in 1954.
  
About 240,000 foreign experts come to China for work each year, and the foreign experts who have been awarded today are outstanding representatives of them, Wen said. 

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2004)