South China's Guangdong Province will send as many grass-roots officials as possible back to school.

The officials will get a chance to further their studies at higher learning institutions across the country and even some in foreign countries, said a senior provincial personnel official yesterday.

"Those who are now working in towns and villages in the prosperous Pearl River Delta region will be given top priority in the first stage," said Tan Zhangqiu, director of the Guangdong Provincial Personnel Bureau.

The goal is to train a group of high-quality grass-roots cadres to improve the province's competitiveness, Tan said.

Guangdong, where a market economy is well developed, lacks qualified grass-roots cadres who have international vision and know economics well, Tan added.

Currently, most of the province's township and village cadres are promoted local farmers and young university graduates.

However, the province's growth is very dependent on foreign-orientated economic development.

Tan urged relevant departments and cities to try to offer better working and living conditions to local grass-roots cadres who are enthusiastic about helping the local economic growth.

The decision to send officials to universities and colleges was made after the Pearl River Delta city of Zhongshan took the lead and successfully trained its township and village cadres.

In 1999, Zhongshan decided to train at least 6,000 local officials annually. Many are township and village officials.

Each year, about 200 grass-roots officials in Zhongshan go to universities and colleges in the United States, Britain, Singapore and other nations.

More than 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) was spent sending officials to study abroad from 1999 to 2003, said Cui Guochao, Party secretary of Zhongshan.

"They have played an increasingly important role in developing the city's rural economy," Cui said.

More than 50 per cent of the officials were promoted after they furthered their studies at domestic or overseas universities and colleges, Cui added.

With the improvement of management abilities of the city's grass-roots leadership, Zhongshan's economy has enjoyed sustainable growth in recent years, contributing to overall economic development of the whole province.

Zhongshan's economy grew more than 18 per cent in the first half of this year from the same period of 2003.

Editor: Olivia