“Guangzhou may unveil the ‘Kapok Plan’ which aims to attract more high-end overseas talent during the 2017 Convention on Exchange of Overseas Talent”, Chen Yuyuan, deputy director-general of Guangzhou Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, remarked during the press conference held in Guangzhou on Thursday.
According to the bureau’s previous reveal, the city will support 30 entrepreneurship projects run by overseas talent with a subsidy up of up to a maximum of two million RMB a year from 2018 to 2022 through the ‘Kapok Plan’.
The 2017 Convention on the Exchange of Overseas Talent, as well as the 19th Guangzhou Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology (OCS) will be held from December 20 to 21 this year at Canton Fair Complex and Guangzhou andGuangzhou Baiyun International Convention Centers, according to Chen.
Over 3000 overseas luminaries to attend
As the largest, highest level and most influential convention on overseas talent in China, this year's convention is committed to breaking the restrictions of nationality and territory.
According to the OCS committee, over 2500 individuals has confirmed their participation in the convention, around 60% of who hold doctor's degrees. It is estimated that the convention will attract more than 3,000 individuals from overseas, including nearly 350 experts from the "The Thousand Talent Plan", 100 experts from the Commonwealth of the Independent States and 1,737 individuals who have signed up of their own accord. Together they are expected to bring more than 1000 projects to Guangzhou.
It is said that more events to bring in talent will be held during the convention, such as Guangzhou Night, Summit Forum and talent recruitment.
The 2017 OCS to be ‘never ending’
“The 2017 OCS will also rely on the Internet O2O platform. Guangzhou will cooperate with talent recruitment agencies in foreign countries, integrate online and offline resources, to create "a never-ending OCS.", according to Chen.
A job fair will be held during the convention. More than 50 Fortune 500 companies including Foxconn, HSBC, Siemens, Toshiba, Wal-Mart, AEON, HNA, China Unicom, China Southern Power Grid, Sony, Honeywell, JD.com, Sinopec Group and China Railway Group participation has been confirmed.
In addition, this year’s convention will see a series of activities and an atmosphere of innovation and pragmatism, to encourage more projects to get up and running.
Western Returned Scholars Association & Overseas-educated Scholars Association China will hold talent recruitment at 2017’s OCS. The talent recruitment is going to set up sub-conferences in other domestic and foreign cities via the internet.
The previous 18 OCSs have attracted a total of over 40 thousand overseas talents to participate and 65% of whom hold doctoral degrees. The previous conventions also facilitated the launch of nearly 20 thousand projects, and over a half of them have been successfully seen through.
Last year was the first time that the OCS was‘upgraded’ to become an exchange convention for both overseas talents and Chinese scholars. Over 3300 academics and professionals from overseas attended 2016’s OCS with more than 1000 science and technology projects proposed.
Reported by Keane
Edited by Simon Haywood
