China Pledges Two-way ExchangeChina not only welcomes worldwide talent to help with its economic development, but the nation also expects to send more of its experts to help other developing countries, a senior official said Sunday.Long Yongtu, vice-minister of foreign trade and economic co-operation (MOFTEC) made the remarks at the Seventh International TOKTEN (Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals) Conference, sponsored by the Chinese Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sunday to Wednesday. TOKTEN is a volunteer programme supported by the UNDP and UN Volunteers (UNV) that brings expatriates living in developed countries back to their home countries to provide short-term free advice to local institutions. First conceived by the UNDP in Turkey in 1976, the TOKTEN Programme, which started in China in 1980, has brought back nearly 2,000 overseas Chinese on short-term consultancy assignments to contribute in the fields of agriculture, economics, science, technology, health and education. Long praised achievements of the TOKTEN in China, stressing the programme is expected to fuel China's developments in high science and technology. He wished more experts could work for China's western development strategy. Since 1977, more than 300,000 Chinese have studied in foreign countries, and many have remained working in the countries where they studied. To encourage those who have finished their studies abroad to contribute to China, Huang Qitao, vice-minister of science and technologies hoped the TOKTEN programme would link these people to homeland. How to exchange useful information and technologies between developing countries will also be discussed at the conference, according to Kerstin Leitner, UNDP's China representative. |
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