BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin has called on overseas-educated Chinese talents to contribute to the country's development by returning home and starting businesses.

Jia, also a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks in his letter to Wednesday's award ceremony here for the first "Teng fei" awards.

The China Western-returned Scholar Entrepreneur "Teng Fei" Award was designed to honor and reward those returned overseas-educated Chinese who had grown into enterprises leaders.

The award was given to 50 excellent enterprises, 10 enterprises with vast potential, and 10 outstanding entrepreneurs.

Han Qide, president of the award's co-organizer, the Western Returned Scholars Association, explained that the underlying purpose of the award was to provide a platform to promote understanding and exchange of experiences among those returnees, and to encourage, support and help more of them to launch their own careers.