The granting ceremony was performed at an international personnel fair held in Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu province, which means China's personnel market has officially opened to overseas.

Those intermediary services are from different countries and regions including Germany, Japan, Hungary, Luxembourg, Australia, the United States, Canada, France, Russia and Hong Kong.

The State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs will hold annual inspections and evaluations of those overseas intermediary services to build a regular and mature international personnel market in China.

"The access of overseas investors to China's personnel sector will bring about the advanced management skills of overseas intermediary services and help improve the service quality and competitiveness of domestic service providers," said Hou Jianliang, vice-minister of personnel.

(People's Daily November 12, 2001)