BEIJING -- China's high-skilled workers reached 31.2 million as of the end of 2011, 4.9 million more than at the end of 2009, according to official data released on Saturday.

High-skilled workers accounted for 26.2 percent of China's 119 million skilled workforce as of the end of 2011, up 1.5 percentage points from the end of 2009, according to figures released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Securities, or?MOHRSS.

Yin Weimin, the minister of MOHRSS, said high-skilled workers are important to the country's economic progress and technical innovation.

Yin said the ministry will further eliminate barriers that block the development of high-skilled workers and set up a scientific set of schemes to evaluate them.

High-skilled workers usually refer to those who grasp expertise or sophisticated skills in a certain area. China aims to expand its high-skilled workers to 34 million by 2015 and 39 million by 2020.