BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhuanet) -- China is trying to attract people of exceptional ability from abroad. The country has just released a blueprint to develop talent in the medium to long-term, and recruiting them from overseas is an important component of that design. More should be done, however, to persuade Chinese college graduates to stay and work here.

Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalization, warned recently that 500,000 Chinese scientists and engineers have moved to the industrialized West over the decade - meaning the brain drain is continuing.

This may well be the third wave of Chinese talent to seek greener pastures abroad, following the contingent of laborers during the late 1970s and college graduates in the early 1990s.

The current outflow is essentially from among the nouveau riche and intellectual elite.

On the other hand, the weak global economy is helping China reverse the much-lamented "brain drain" as hundreds of technology hands, scientists and corporate managers, primarily from the United States, are heading back home.

China’s booming economy has helped aid in the influx. Its average 8-percent annual growth rate over the last decade has opened the floodgates of opportunity, ambition and ideas.

Still, the efflux far exceeds inbound talent.

Trained and skilled people are a scarce commodity. Losing them is a setback to China’s development. The nation must analyze the push-pull factors responsible for such brain drain.

This trend can be reversed, chiefly by creating conditions that make the pursuit of excellence possible.

A sense of fulfillment in both the professional as well as the personal arena is necessary to retain trained professionals.