The 11th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals (CIEP) was held in Shenzhen from December 10 to 11, 2012. This CIEP consisted of six parts, i.e. the original Exhibitions and Negotiations, Shenzhen Forum, Professional Conferences, High-end Recruitment, and the newly established Joint Exhibitions of Global Enterprises and Business Schools and Highly-skilled Professionals Pavilion. Ten exhibitions areas were set up, including those for foreign expert organizations, foreign training institutions and training institutions from outside Chinese Mainland, overseas students, institutions in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, overseas high-level talent institutions, and talent agencies. Totally 38 signing and promotion activities as well as more than 60 special fairs and business meetings were held, which attracted 100,000 people to the conference. The number of foreign exhibitors increased, which made the conference “more international”.

At this CIEP, the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs newly certified 15 foreign institutions and institutions from outside Chinese Mainland that can engage in international talent exchange activities in China, which has made the number of such institutions 374 up to now; in terms of international talent exchange, the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs signed or preliminarily reached more than 1,390 cooperation agreements. Various provinces and cities reached over 1,800 intentions to cooperate with professional organizations and training institutions on talent attraction projects.

High-end recruitment activities were also held during the conference. Fortune 500 companies such as Huawei, Foxconn, Sumitomo Electric, and Emerson, as well as over 400 famous domestic enterprises including China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Limited, BGI Shenzhen, Skyworth Group, China South City, and BYD, competed for talents in Hall 2 and Hall 3 of Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, 60% of which were new and high-tech enterprises. Nearly 30,000 elite talents came to the recruitment fair. According to statistics, participants in this fair were mainly postgraduates and graduates, 5% of which were PhD graduates and 33% were postgraduates, and 90% of the overseas PhD graduates had their own projects. North America China International Exchange Center organized about 260 returnees from a dozen countries like the US, the UK, Australia, and Japan to the conference, 80% of which were PhD graduates.