China home to 120m skilled workers as of '10

BEIJING - China had 120 million people with outstanding occupational skills as of 2010, up 7.8 million from 2008, according to a national survey conducted by several government departments.

The large-scale survey, which started in February 2011 and directly involved more than 10,000 personnel, was jointly conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Bureau of Statistics.

Skilled workers refer to people with a certain level of professional knowledge or skills who are able to make significant contributions to society.

"In the past, we focused on educational attainment and work unit rankings. However, in order to secure more scientific results, we based this survey on the nature of working fields and professional levels," an unnamed official in charge of administering the survey said Tuesday.

According to the survey results, which were released on Monday, the 120 million skilled workers account for 11.1 percent of the country's entire human resource base. The workers range from government officials and entrepreneurs to scientists and researchers.

China has created a slew of policies to nurture domestic talent and lure high-caliber workers from overseas.

Last month, Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning said the country will issue more green cards and ease restrictions for visa-free entry to encourage more talented individuals from overseas to work in the country.

Figures show that the number of foreigners who stayed in China for at least six months soared to 600,000 in 2011 from less than 20,000 in 1980.

The country has also vowed to introduce favorable policies for foreign high-level workers regarding social insurance, taxation, medical services, education for their children and academic funding.

Monday's survey results showed that the country spent 12 percent of its GDP on education, health care and research and development in 2010, up 1.3 percentage points from 2008.