China's booming economy, favorable policies and excellent research environments are resulting in a surge in talent returning from the West, helping the nation to compete in global innovation, a top education specialist said yesterday.

"They are being attracted by the policies aimed at enticing skilled overseas Chinese to return home to develop their careers and build an innovative country," said Lu Yucheng, chairman of the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation.

He was speaking at the launch of the Western-Return Scholar Entrepreneur "Teng Fei" Award, which he added aims to "encourage returned elites to share successful experiences with more overseas Chinese".

The foundation has allocated more than 1 million yuan ($140,000) to the prize fund, which will be shared between 10 elite entrepreneurs and 50 corporations on Dec 18.

Around 1.4 million Chinese have studied abroad since China's opening-up policy in 1978, with 390,000 already returned, said Lu.

Source: By Chen Jia (China Daily)