HANGZHOU -- Fifty-year-old Shanghai native Yang Liyou had been doing research on solar cells in the United States for many years, but when he came back to Zhejiang province, he became a "shipmaster."
"Let's buy a ship together, and you could be the captain," Yang was quoting Nan Cunhui, board chairman of an low-voltage electrical manufacturing company, who described their relationship five years ago when he invited Yang to help the company compete in the solar energy industry.
In October 2006, Yang became president and CEO of Astronergy Solar, a leading photovoltaic manufacturer under the CHINT Group, Nan's company.
"Many returned Chinese talents possess advanced projects and competent research teams, but what they lack are funds and the ability to put everything into practical operation," Yang said, adding that getting used to doing things the Western way might also get them into trouble in China.
Yang believes the best way is to unite overseas Chinese talents with domestic privately-owned companies.
"China's private companies are more familiar with the local enterprise environment, and they can handle detail issues more easily and effectively," he said.
Figures from the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange under the Ministry of Education show that more than 1.9 million Chinese went overseas for study from 1978 to 2010, and 632,000, or more than 33 percent, have returned home.
According to the center, 134,800 learners returned to China in 2010, up 24 percent year-on-year.
The hike came following the global financial crisis when many foreign countries, including the United States, Australia and Singapore, tightened their immigration policies, while China became a hotspot for overseas Chinese with its unique working environment and policies.
According to a circular made public earlier this year by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, enterprises started by Chinese entrepreneurs who have returned from overseas that have good innovation capacity and market prospects can receive substantial support, such as a proportion of their start-up capital during their start-up phases.
Further, the government will collect corporate income tax from recognized state-encouraged high-tech enterprises led by overseas Chinese entrepreneurs at a lower rate of 15 percent.
Meanwhile, local governments are aiming to allure overseas-educated talents to boost regional development.
In Zhejiang, which is home to the most vibrant private businesses and one of the richest provinces in China, high-level overseas talents can receive a one-off bonus of 500,000 yuan ($77,000) as long as they spend two to six months working in the province for three consecutive years.
The government of Jinan, capital of Shandong province, plans to attract 150 domestic and overseas elites from 2009 to 2013 to boost the city's technology innovation drive by spending 100 million yuan every year to support them in start-up capital, research funding, housing and living allowance.
According to Shen Youzhong, an official with the management committee of the Zhejiang Overseas High-level Talents Innovation Park, 200 overseas enterprises have opened their businesses in the park so far, and half of them involve overseas returned Chinese and capitals from domestic private groups.
"With vigorous policy support from the government, China's economic development has a lot of potential," said returned Chinese Charlie Xiang, CEO of the Hangzhou-based S-Evans Biosciences.
According to Xiang, after graduating from the University of Waterloo in Canada, flourishing development opportunities enticed him to bring his stem cell project back to China in 2009. And very soon, he set up S-Evans Biosciences with the investment of a private company in Hangzhou.
Xiang, known for his long-term research on stem cells, is now a leading scientist in China's "Program 973," also known as the National Key Fundamental Research Development Program.
"Returning to China to start a career is now a consensus among many overseas Chinese," Xiang said.
