QINGDAO introduced about 100,000 well-educated professionals over the past five years with the help of two programs — “300 Talents Program” and “Urgently Needed High-caliber Talent Program.”

    Among them were about 2,000 high-caliber domestic professionals and 7,000 from overseas.

    There are now about 1.2 million professionals in Qingdao, 250,000 more than in 2004 and the highest number of all cities in Shandong Province.

    Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao increased in number from 39 to 50.

    The number of professionals receiving special allowances from the State Council was 860, up 313 from 2004. And 983 people in the city are “National Innovative Talent.”

    Haier Group was selected as a national base where high-caliber professionals from overseas can start their own projects. Qingdao High-tech Zone and Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Laboratory are provincial bases for overseas talent start-ups.

    The city also sent more than 2,000 business managers and technological staff overseas for training. Nearly 30,000 people in marine technology and electronics industries received training provided by the city.

    Qingdao has been awarding professionals with cash prizes up to1 million yuan (US$150,000) to encourage innovation between 2006 and 2010. So far, 111 people have been given the prizes.

    This year alone the city government spent 10 million yuan on the prizes.

    Over the past five years, Qingdao people won 29 national awards and 342 provincial awards in technological innovation.

    Guan Huashi and his team from Ocean University of China won a first prize of National Technological Invention Award in January, the first time the prize was won by Qingdao.

    (Tina Chen, Jia Feng)