Pan Qinglin, a political advisor and standing committee member of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, was among the distinguished speakers at the 2016 Pingtan Innovation Forum for Entrepreneurs and Scientists.

Pan Qinglin was selected to be the president of the Chinese innovation association in Japan at that organization's inaugural meeting in June.

Pan addressed innovation by foreign and overseas Chinese and China's economic transformation, upon which he is in a position to comment given not only his positions just mentioned but also because of his experience of studying in Japan in the 1980s and working there for 30 years. He has made an extraordinary contribution to facilitating people-to-people exchanges between China and Japan.

Pan said that a nation that innovates will develop, and that talent recruitment is the key to innovation-driven development. He explained that several million of the total 60 million foreign and overseas Chinese are professionals whose areas of expertise cover most of the hi-tech development sectors.

According to rough statistics, 400,000 foreign and overseas Chinese had established 30,000 businesses in industrial parks and business incubators across China as of 2015, becoming a major driving force in China's technological innovation and economic transformation.

Talking about the difficulty in attracting more foreign and overseas Chinese to come to work for China's economic growth, Pan said that we have policies to attract these talents but they are not detailed enough.

Long-term overseas living and working experience has given Pan the opportunity to know what would appeal to the foreign and overseas Chinese community. After having conversations with many overseas Chinese, including scientists and top scholars, Pan found that most of them care more about how to settle their families, including housing, spousal employment and children's education, than how much they are paid.

As the permanent host of the innovation forum for entrepreneurs and scientists, Pingtan should build itself into a center for Chinese innovative talents from across the world, by creating an environment where they need not worry about anything besides work, Pan suggested.

Pan also said that it is important for Pingtan to take advantage of Fujian's connection with foreign and overseas Chinese to recruit more talents to accelerate its development. Fujian province is the origin of numerous foreign and overseas Chinese, and its Quanzhou city was the starting point of the historic Maritime Silk Road.

Pan Qinglin at the 2016 Pingtan Innovation Forum for Entrepreneurs and Scientists. [Photo provided to ptnet.cn]