ENTERPRISES and institutions in Shenzhen attracted 10,509 students returning from overseas to work in the city in 2016, an increase of 49.3 percent over the previous year, a report by the city’s human resources and social security bureau showed.

    Huawei Technologies, Ping An Insurance Co. of China, and China Merchants Bank Shenzhen Branch were the top three companies attracting returned overseas talents, while Shenzhen University, SUSTech and Shenzhen Graduate School of Harbin Institute of Technology were also among the top 10.

    Among the returnees, 89.2 percent were master’s degree holders, mostly under the age of 35, and half of them were born in the 1990s.

    Among them, 1,626 worked in the finance industry, an increase of 88 percent over the previous year. Information technology, software, manufacturing and education were also favored by returnees. A total of 852 returnees worked in the information technology sector.

    In 2016, 41 returnees were selected into the 1,000 National Professionals Program and 632 were included in the city’s Peacock Plan. Seven returnees got government subsidies, which were to encourage overseas students to start businesses in the city, and 53 enterprises set up by returned overseas students received 22.1 million yuan (US$3.2 million) in subsidies.

    By the end of 2016, 22 entrepreneurship parks and eight industrial parks for returned overseas talents has been set up in the city. The number of enterprises set up by returnees reached more than 4,000. The production volume of each of 208 of the enterprises surpassed 10 million yuan a year.

    Sixty of the enterprises each have annual production volumes exceeding 100 million yuan.

    According to an employment report released by the Ministry of Education in 2015, Shenzhen has become one of the four most favored cities for employment by overseas students. The city’s GDP in 2016 reached 1.93 trillion yuan, an increase of 9 percent over the previous year.

    Fast economic growth, innovation, as well as good environment and air quality are major factors in their choice of Shenzhen as a good place to work and start up their businesses. (Han Ximin)