Hainan will grant permanent residence rights to top-tier overseas talented people under a recruitment action plan announced by the Hainan provincial government on Sunday night.

The new policy, one of Hainan's measures to implement central government directives to provide a welcoming environment for talented individuals who can contribute to making Hainan an international pilot free trade zone, also applies to those individuals' spouses and children under 18.

Last month, while celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hainan becoming a province and a special economic zone, the central government unveiled plans to build it into a pilot international free trade zone and explore the building of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics.

Overseas talent of lower levels can apply for entry visas with a work permit while overseas Chinese can apply for a five-year residence permit under the relevant rules, according to the talent recruitment action plan.

It said foreign students who receive master's degrees or higher from Chinese universities are encouraged to work and run businesses on the island. A green channel will be open to facilitate their sending their legal income from Hainan overseas.

The province also will carry out reform in international talent evaluation and management systems to make them match international standards.

A shortage of talent has been a problem for Hainan, which now faces a huge demand for both domestic and overseas talent in developing the pilot international free trade zone, officials at a news conference said on Sunday. They said the action plan will enroll a million talented individuals from this year to 2025.

The plan encourages well-known international education resources and training organizations to come to Hainan to launch cooperation projects to cultivate talent with international vision.

Hainan also will recruit about 1,000 much-needed top-tier professionals with management expertise from various departments under the central government, leading cities around the country, free trade zones, large State-owned enterprises and from Hong Kong and Macao. Experts at building free trade zones and free trade ports will be targeted.

Hainan will develop six major industrial parks that cover such fields as space science and technology, deepsea research, seed crossbreeding and tropical agriculture to attract investment, projects and build platforms for talented arrivals, according to the plan.

"Our university lacks outstanding overseas talent, which is a must for us to build a first-class university. The plan will serve as a good directive for us to recruit international talent," said Zhang Xirui, a human resources official at Hainan University.

The provincial government said Hainan is building a one-stop service platform, which will provide more than 30 service items such as residence registration, talent identification, housing subsidy applications, enterprise registration and school enrollment for children, to provide convenient services for incoming talent.