(Yicai Global) Sept. 11 -- The number of Chinese students returning home is expected to exceed the total number of new students studying abroad for the first time this year, Yang Jin, education counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Paris, France, told People's Daily's overseas edition.

In the past three years, the number of people who apply for the certificate of returned overseas students from the education department is on the increase every year, which reflects the growing enthusiasm of the students studying in France to return to China, Yang said.

This shows that a series of policies China has launched in recent years to finance, support and attract overseas students to return home to start up innovation and entrepreneurship has achieved positive results, Yang pointed out.

In addition to overseas talent attraction platforms such as the Thousand Talents scheme and the Thousand Young Talents scheme continuing to mature, China has currently built nearly 350 returnees entrepreneurship parks with more than 27,000 enterprises settled in them, which has created a good environment for overseas talent to return home for entrepreneurship, Yang added.

By the end of 2016, the total number of returned students in China reached 2,651,100 and 432,500 came back in 2016 alone, representing an increase of 58.48 percent compared with 2012, the "2017 Report on China's Overseas Returnees' Employment and Entrepreneurship" released by Center for China and Globalization shows.