Sun Juan, chairperson of the Shenzhen Aokoo Biotechnologies Co Ltd, is among the 113 Chinese returning from overseas to have received financial help from the Shenzhen municipal government this year.

Sun's company, which is involved in the development of AIDS vaccines, received up to 150,000 yuan (US$18,518) from the city government.

"Although the amount of financial aid is not very big, the money is somehow a great support from the city government for our company psychologically because it proved my decision to set up my business in Shenzhen is correct," Sun said.

In 1998, Sun went to the Medical University of South Carolina in the United States to pursue post-doctorate research in microbiology and immunotherapy after finishing her medical studies on the Chinese mainland.

She worked in the bio-tech industry in Colorado in the United States for five years. At the end of 2003, she decided to return to set up her own business Shenzhen's high-tech industrial park in Nanshan District.

"After surveying Beijing and Shanghai, I eventually chose Shenzhen because I believed that the multicultural environment in the city was more ideal for starting a bio-tech company like mine," Sun said.

A total of 113 companies established by Chinese returnees in Shenzhen have received funds amounting to 8.65 million yuan from the city this year.

This is the sixth time the city government has provided funds to returnees setting up businesses in Shenzhen. It is also the largest amount to date.

So far, the city government has provided funds totaling 25.31 million yuan to 299 key high-tech projects run by returnees in the city.

The latest statistics show Shenzhen has drawn more than 8,000 such returnees. Last year alone, a total of 1,639 Chinese returnees chose to come to the city.

The returnees have set up more than 620 enterprises in the city in high-tech fields such as new materials, new energy and biomedicine.

(Shenzhen Daily January 6, 2006)