GUANGZHOU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Experts attending a forum said China's booming automotive industry needs more talents to support its rapid development.

As the country's auto industry expanded quickly in recent years, all sectors of the industry were short of talents, said Zhang Xiaoyu with the China Machinery Industry Federation, at the forum held in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Toshiaki Otami, general manager of the Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, said the company has more than 7,000 employees at present, almost doubling the number of 3,800 four year ago when it was founded, and it is still in need of a lot more talents.

There was a great gap between the demand and supply of auto talents as there were only 6,000 to 7,000 graduates from relevant colleges each year, while a large automaker abroad usually needs at least 7,000 people to build an independent product development system, said Yu Zhuoping, a professor of the automotive college of Shanghai-based Tongji University.

A research report predicts that the number of workers in China's auto industry will grow by ten percent every year on average to hit 3.57 million in 2010 and 7.76 million in 2020.

Zhang said that the industry was particularly short of high-end talents, especially those engaged in auto designing and technicians in workshops.

There is also a rapidly increasing need for people engaged in auto financing, auto insurance and auto sales, according to Yu.

China's automotive sales reached seven million units in 2006, and is predicted to exceed 10 million units in 2010 and overtake the United State to become the largest auto market in the world in 2016.