Li, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), met Premier Zhu during the annual meeting that was held here in the past week.

Li pledged to Zhu that the nation must address the "braindrain" problem expeditiously, and to implement a practical policy to retain workers with technical skills, particularly talents in specialized systems.

When Li met with the press last week, he said that research environment at CALT had always been well suited to foster young technicians in developing their skills. In a matter of three to five years, the Academy would significantly raise the skill levels of these technicians.

But some of the young technicians were attracted to the higher paying jobs many foreign companies offer. Li had even seen that these companies used their own vehicles to transport young technicians to and from the Academy as a way to lure them to change jobs.

In one of the research institutions in the Academy, Li said that the loss of skilled workers reached an alarming 40 percent a year. This has posed agonizing problems for the Academy.

"The Chief Designer at the Academy earns a monthly salary of slightly more than 3,000 Renminbi (U.S. $360) while a young technician makes about 1,000 Renminbi (U.S. $120).

If they 'jump ship' to work for a foreign company or a joint [China-foreign] enterprise, the salary would be 8,000 Renminbi (U.S. $960) a month. There is a clear difference [in earnings] and how can we compete with others?" said Li.

Over the past 42 years CALT has successfully launched more than 60 satellites into space. Li said that tje technologies of Chinese launchers had reached international level.

But Japan and India were catching up with China as the two nations invested heavily in their space programs. According to Li, "Space industry is a high tech, high investment enterprise. The key competition is in skilled workers."

Last year after the successful test flight of the Shenzhou capsule, CALT awarded five specialists each with 100,000 Renminbi (U.S. $12,080). Media reported that 'manufacturing rockets finally paid more than selling chicken eggs'.

"The five specialists spent eight to thirteen yearstfo work hard on a key national research program, a 100,000 Renminbi reward is indeed not much; [you can say] it's a bit too little. In future, the magnitude of rewarding scientists who make significant contributions needs to be larger," said Li.

Li recognized that movement of skilled workers was typical. However, key positions required relative stability in keeping skilled workers, particularly in the space industry, where it can take 10 years for a technician to acquire broad knowledge and experience.

He urged relevant government departments to address the "braindrain" problem, to enact a special policy to retain talented workers.

Li also told the media that there would ne more unmanned test flights of the manned capsule this year, although the timeline would depend on the progress of the overall manned mission program.

China would only launch its yuhangyuan [official term for astronaut in Chinese] into space only after several consecutive successful unmanned flights, but adding the first manned mission launch were not that far off.

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