A number of favorable measures, including expanding recruitment programs, are leading to more foreign experts and expertise, a senior official said at a forum on Monday.

State-owned enterprises directly under the central government have hired more than 1,600 overseas employees, said Huang Shuhe, deputy director of the State Council's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

"International experts have helped these enterprises produce many of the world's leading technologies and products with their own intellectual property rights, and that has laid a foundation that will carry the enterprises forward," he said.

Recruitment programs are in operation in China.

The Recruitment Program of Global Experts is one and through it a research and development group, involved with 15 State-owned enterprises in Beijing, hired 136 high-level experts.

China started the program in 2008, in a bid to attract 2,000 overseas professionals to key projects across a range of sectors from engineering to finance.

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) introduced a national recruitment project in 2011 to secure the services of 500 to 1,000 high-caliber foreign experts in 10 years for key industries.

Under the project, each of the selected overseas professionals will be offered a subsidy of 1 million yuan (160,300 U.S. dollars) to cover their living expenses.

Another subsidy of 3 to 5 million yuan will be offered for scientific research, according to previous documents released by the SAFEA.

A total of 94 foreign experts have been enrolled in the project, according to a statement issued at the opening ceremony of the 11th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals.

Although China has been trying hard to attract international professionals, the country is still at the preliminary stage of attracting global talent, according to Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing.

Only about 600,000 foreign professionals have work permits in China, while the US annually grants more than 100,000 green cards for foreign talent and nearly 90,000 talent visas, he said.

"We should do more to get global talent, for example by introducing more favorable and convenient visa and residence policies," he said.

Wu Jiang, director of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, said the country should optimize its structure of recruitment.

The government should also provide better public services and make its legal environment for talent introduction better, Wu suggested.