A massive meeting aimed at driving innovation and attracting more foreign talent to the Chinese mainland has opened in the southern city of Shenzhen. The Conference on International Exchange of Professionals was founded in 2001 by the then State Administration of Foreign Affairs. CGTN's Liu Yang has more.

The theme of this year's conference is "Cooperation, Innovation, and Development" and it has welcomed more than 4-thousand institutions and organizations from more than 50 countries and regions from around the world. More than 40-thousand government representatives are also in attendance. Experts say talent is the key to pushing forward China's development.

XIA BING DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL, CHINA ASSOC FOR INT'L EXCHANGE OF PERSONNEL "We need to create a better working environment and promote international exchange and cooperation in talents exchange. For example, we are improving our policies related to inviting foreign academics to be the chief scientists for our project. We have issued three thousand visas for top-notch talent. They can live in China for 180 days a year, and 10 years with multiple round trips."

The conference has also set up an area for promoting the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. One of the focuses is on attracting more high-end talent to create innovative programs and start-ups in China. This includes technological cooperation.

SIR JIM MCDONALD PRINCIPAL & VICE CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE GLASGOW "The conference we are attending today is really focusing on international talent and exchange, and my own university is not only receiving wonderful Chinese students, we also have very senior Chinese engineers and scientists coming to work with us for a year extension, engineers from Chinese aerospace and science and technology institutes and Chinese academy of science technology come too. We have eight currently working on advanced technology called mechatronics."

MICHAEL DEPRISCO VICE PRESIDENT, PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE "The great thing about PMI and our standard is globally recognized, is it brings with it a level of authority and credibility and is recognized around the world. This is evidenced by the fact that we have 300 thousand PMPs in China and throughout China."

This year's conference has invited the UK as the guest of honor. The two countries will sign several agreements on personnel training and project docking. The conference has set up an area for high-end technology services, such as providing legal consulting and intellectual protection. Liu Yang, CGTN, Shenzhen.