PLEDGING stepped-up measures to benefit talented foreigners Tuesday, Premier Li Keqiang made no secret of China’s desire to draw more talents from overseas as the nation deepens its reform and opening-up.

    China will lower the threshold for foreigners to come to the country and streamline procedures for them to invest and start businesses here, Li told more than 60 foreign experts from 32 countries, including Nobel laureates Michael Spence and Edmund Phelps, and U.S. futurist and best-selling author John Naisbitt, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

    The country will offer more international products and services for them, making China a promising land for talents in various areas to innovate and succeed, he said at the meeting held by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

    Li also promised a simpler visa policy and an easier path to a permanent residency permit, or green card, in China.

    The meeting between Chinese leaders and foreign experts has become a much-anticipated event before the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 19 this year.

    The number of foreign experts in China has increased from fewer than 10,000 at the end of the 1980s to about 530,000 at the end of 2011, according to official figures. Since China began issuing green cards in 2003, it has granted about 500 to foreign applicants annually. The United States, by comparison, issues about 1 million a year.

    “China should try to adopt a more positive, proactive and open policy to attract international talent, and an efficient foreign talents management system is crucial,” said Yrjo Kalervo Sotamaa, an emeritus professor at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in Finland.

    “For recruiting foreign talents, employers and the market should play a decisive role. The main contribution of the government is to create an environment and provide services,” said Sotamaa.

    China usually grants its version of green cards to foreigners in certain categories, including businessmen who have invested at least US$500,000 in the country, technical personnel such as managers, people with skills “needed by the State,” and spouses of Chinese nationals.

    By March last year, only 6,000 expatriates had received green cards in China, according to a report by China Daily.

    (SD-Agencies)