A group of highly-skilled overseas Chinese visits Intel Shanghai. [Photo/chinanews.com]

Highly-skilled overseas Chinese have become a new focus for Shanghai's Zhangjiang area in its attempts to bring in talented personnel, said Cheng Dong, president of the Shanghai Pudong Association of Returned Overseas Scholars, on July 12.

Cheng went on to say that this is because often overseas Chinese will bring back a team of professionals with them if they return to launch start-up businesses in China, which makes them an attractive proposition for recruiting to the area.

The Shanghai MicroPort Scientific Corp is a typical example. The company was founded by Chang Zhaohua, who gained his PhD in the United States. Upon returning to China, he led a group of high-tech professionals. 

Shanghai is regarded as one of the most attractive Chinese cities to live and work in for foreigners, according to results of a survey launched by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs in April.

Shanghai's Zhangjiang, known as the "Silicon Valley in China", is working on combining its attractiveness and advantageous resources to lure highly-skilled workers to settle in the area, so they can contribute to the city's innovation-driven growth.

Zhangjiang's advantageous resources include a batch of top national research institutes and universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and ShanghaiTech University, state-owned companies such as the Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute of COMAC, and multinationals' research centers such as the Dupont China R&D Center.

A group of highly-skilled overseas Chinese visits Zhangjiang High Tech Park, Pudong, Shanghai. [Photo/chinanews.com]