BEIJING, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-two outstanding students from 11 Chinese engineering universities will be invited to visit the booths of nearly 70 Swiss manufacturers at the forthcoming 10th China International Machine Tool Exhibition in Beijing.

    Dr. Kurt Meier, Secretary General of the Swiss Mechanics and Economic Industry Association, who invited the Chinese students to the exhibition, said the sale of Swiss machine tools to China has grown by leaps and bounds, and the number of Swiss-China joint ventures has also risen year by year.

    "Attracting high-quality Chinese engineers and technicians to China-based Swiss companies is of key importance to maintaining the production of Swiss-brand machine tools in China, thereby preserving the competitiveness of the Swiss manufacturing industry in the world," he said.

    The Swiss Mechanics and Economic Industry Association began inviting Chinese students to visit the Swiss booths at the China International Machine Tool Exhibition in 1999.

    Meier said the Swiss engineers will illustrate and display the advanced techniques of Swiss-made machine tool at the expo. Chinese students will also have the chance to visit the workshops of Beijing-based China-Swiss joint ventures.

    "This way the Swiss companies will have face to face communication with the Chinese students and then find the right personnel," he said.

    He revealed that the 22 students this year will be selected from Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Sichuan University, Harbin Industrial University, etc.

    According to the China International Education Communication Association, the Chinese organizer of the students' visit, the Swiss have a leading role in global machine tool manufacturing. Switzerland has established vocational education, on-the-job training and adult education and is far ahead of China in this regard.

    Official statistics show that China at present has 140 million workers in urban areas, 70 million of whom are skilled workers. Yet "blue collars" with specialized skills account for only four percent of the 70 million, far behind the average 30-40 percent in developed countries.

    To solve the shortage of "blue-collar" workers, China has set atarget of developing secondary vocational training schools to enroll eight million students by 2010.

    Beat Gurgi, Managing Director of the Swiss Business Hub at the Swiss Embassy in China, said Switzerland and China shared a long history of economic cooperation. "We not only hope to strengthen bilateral economic ties, but also enhance Chinese young people's understanding of Switzerland."

    The exhibition to be held from April 9 to 15 is one of the world's top four exhibitions in the field of machine tool manufacturing.