Dozens of expatriates were invited to a reception dinner held at the Citizens' Center in Shenzhen yesterday, to celebrate the upcoming Spring Festival. Attendees were greeted by Mayor Xu Zongheng and Vice Mayor Liu Yingli.

Xu met many foreign senior executives including Joseph Hatfield from Wal-Mart, Jeffrey Williams from Shenzhen Development Bank and Inagaki Masaaki from Fuji Xerox. Before dinner, Xu expressed his gratitude to all expatriates living and working in the city.

The expatriates were among some 200 overseas experts invited to the party, including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Liu delivered his speech in English, praising expatriates for their contributions to the city. "Expatriates sitting here today are from various countries and regions in the world, but many of them are adopting Shenzhen as their second home," he said.

At the reception, co-organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, 12 organizations and companies were awarded for hiring high-level expatriates and 10 overseas experts employed in 2006 were granted foreign expert certificates by the administration.

The foreign expert administration office registered 36,000 overseas experts, including foreigners and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, working in Shenzhen last year. They also estimated the number of expatriates working on long-term contracts exceeded 10,000 in 2005.

Expatriates in the city come from over 30 countries and regions such as the U.S., Britain, Japan, France, Canada, Australia. Their work extends to various fields like nuclear power, aviation, logistics, finance, high tech and education.

Last year, Inagaki, general manger of Fuji Xerox Shenzhen Ltd., won a national friendship award and then the Guangdong Friendship Award, along with other two expats, Jeffrey Gallinat from International Information Products (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. and Joe Layman from China National Offshore Oil Corporation Shenzhen Branch.

Editor: Yan