Besides attracting more overseas professionals, China is speeding up training of its own talent, especially those of State-owned enterprises facing more challenges in global expansion.

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs confirmed on Sunday that it is starting a new round of cooperation with Project Management Institute, a US nonprofit group for the project, program and portfolio management profession. PMI was introduced to cooperate with the Chinese government in 1999.

Lu Ming, deputy administrator of SAFEA, said that the experience of the past 15 years showed that the training of project management talent can help lower operational costs, leverage project management levels, control risk and encourage innovation.

Wang Li, an official from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said the new cooperation was significant with the national economy entering a new normal situation, bringing important changes to the development and management of Chinese enterprises.

"In the past few years, a total of 1,647 employees from central and local State-owned enterprises participated in PMI training courses. A total of 1,488 have passed certification exams," she said.

"Chinese state-owned enterprises are developing their business globally," Wang said. "We need a group of professionals who are familiar with global rules, high learning capabilities and international vision to help us build world-class enterprises and compete globally."

suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn