A Chinese official in charge of hiring overseas professionals predicted recently in Nanjing that in the next five years, more overseas professionals will be employed in China and more Chinese will go abroad for training.

Wan Xueyuan, vice-minister of Personnel and director of State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA), said China's demand for professionals specializing in information technology, finance and accounting will increase by a big margin after China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Wan promised his administration will provide better service for overseas professionals working in China and push their employers to "constantly improve the working and living conditions for the foreign experts."

He also welcomed investment and cooperation from overseas job agencies.

He said that China, as required by WTO, will step up its efforts to establish a market economy open to the outside world, with priority given to improving its market for human resources and capital.

About one million overseas professionals have been employed in China during the past two decades after China opened its door to the outside world, mostly specialized in the fields of agriculture, manufacturing, energy, culture, education, medicine and health, news media and publishing, finance, law, environmental protection and tourism.

He said 445,000 foreign professionals and those from Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan were working in the Chinese mainland, including 220,000 from overseas countries, seven times more than a decade ago.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2001)