BEIJING - China has over 150 business start-up incubators for Chinese students who have studied abroad, according to a statement issued at a national working conference on services for returning Chinese students Monday.

These incubators provide business start-up services for more than 8,000 enterprises and over 20,000 returning students, the statement said.

"Returning Chinese students have made important contributions to the country's industrial structure adjustment and innovation promotion efforts," said Yin Weimin, the minister of Human Resources and Social Security.

The statement said that about 80 percent of Nasdaq-listed Chinese high-tech enterprises were started by students who have returned to China after studying abroad.

Moreover, about 72 percent of the project leaders of the country's national key research projects and over half of the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the country's two leading scientific and technological research institutes, have international education backgrounds.

According to the statement, over the past three decades since China's reform and opening-up to the end of last year, a total of 632,200 overseas Chinese students have returned home and 399,300 of them have returned during the past five years.

An association initiated by 92 domestic organizations offering services for returning Chinese students was established in Beijing on Monday.

The association will build an informational platform for returning students, which will provide job information and facilitate communication and information-sharing about human resources, projects, policies and funding.

Also at Monday's working conference, Yin said China will further improve its permanent residence application and approval system to attract more high-caliber foreign talents.