Shanghai announced yesterday that it is launching a massive recruitment campaign to attract over 10,000 Chinese who have completed high-level education and training overseas in the coming two to three years.

Such a move is regarded by local officials as essential to creating a pool of professional expertise that can strongly bolster Shanghai's envisioned future as a global metropolis.

At the kickoff ceremony held yesterday, broadcast live on the web to overseas Chinese students in the major cities of the United States, France, Britain and Japan, the announcement of the first group of 1,000 local posts open for overseas experts was made by senior city official Wang Anshun.

The posts involve more than 350 organizations in the city, including municipal and district governmental departments, educational, financial and medical institutions as well as a number of companies in sectors such as automobile manufacturing, bio-medicine, microelectronics and integrated circuitry.

"Shanghai's future development hinges largely upon its pool of educated and trained people," said Wang.

(China Daily September 1, 2003)