BEIJING, April 11 -- More Chinese returned to their homeland for work after studying overseas, official data showed Tuesday.

A total of 432,500 overseas students came back to China in 2016, setting a record high, according to Tang Tao, deputy head of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The ratio of overseas students choosing to return home among total overseas students has increased by about 10 percentage points in the past four years.

A total of 2.65 million overseas students had returned to China by the end of 2016 and China has set up 347 start-up hubs for them, which are home to over 27,000 companies.

China has been streamlining settlement procedures for foreign talent to boost the country's competitiveness in innovation.

The government will continue to offer policy support to address challenges facing overseas students in areas such as settlement, education for children and business financing, according to Tang.