Chinese central finance allocates 100 million yuan (US$12 million) every year to send 40,000 officials abroad for training, according to Liu Yanchao, deputy director of the Overseas Training Department of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs (SBFEA).

A mid-term or long-term training program abroad costs about 100,000 yuan (US$12,092) for one person, but the investment is well worth it, Monday's 21st Century Business Herald quoted Liu assaying.

In China, over 90 percent of the cadres at provincial level or ministry level had training experiences abroad. Some provincial leaders were among China's first group of high-level leaders trained at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University.

Chinese officials who have been trained abroad range from national leaders to cadres of local districts and cities.

"It is a very large talent pool," said Liu.

China's earliest overseas official training program started in cooperation with France.

In 1991, Chinese central departments began to entrust a French association for talent training and exchange to train their officials through the SBFEA.

The association has received over 4,000 Chinese trainees in the past 15 years, one-fifth from central government and the rest from local governments, said Guy Marty, chairman of the association.

The French training programs cover a wide range of fields, including grape planting, the French agricultural market, and operation of supermarkets and management of large enterprises.

In 1999 when China initiated reform of state enterprises, the Chinese government sent officials to learn from the French government how to manage and control state enterprises undergoing privatization.

Many countries take training as an opportunity for Chinese officials to understand them. The Japanese Association for Overseas Training Scholarships stopped training once but resumed the programs after they found many of the trained officials were put in important positions back in China.

To meet the demand of China's official training, AFEPE, a French association promoting trade between France and China, turned itself into an association specially engaged in official training, chaired by Marty.

"We have not met hot competition in recruiting Chinese officials at present," said Marty.

China's need for official training was so big and Harvard could only receive little more than 50 officials from China every year, said Marty.

(People’s Daily February 10, 2004)