An opening ceremony was held Sunday morning in Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province for the second Cooperation and Exchange Convention of Overseas Chinese Enterprises in Science and Technology Innovation.

Over 1,000 delegates for overseas Chinese and domestic enterprises and high-ranking officials concerned attended the convention. Of the total, about 400 entrepreneurs are from 28 foreign countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, Australia and the Philippines.

Sponsors of the event include the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs under the State Council, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Office of Rejuvenating Old Industrial Bases in Northeast China and the governments of three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang.

The Central Government's decision to revitalize the northeast will not only create favorable conditions for economic development in the region, but also provide foreign investors, including overseas Chinese, with wonderful business opportunities, said Luo Haocai, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at the opening ceremony.

The regional business promotion campaign consists of two parts. The first one included a series of exchange and inspection activities by overseas Chinese entrepreneurs and professionals in the three provinces, and the second, due to end on July 20, will feature activities mainly in Shenyang.

Ministers' and governors' forums will be staged at the convention in Shenyang to recommend the industrial upgrading in old manufacturing bases of northeast China and foreign investment in related projects.

The inspection tours for the first part of the campaign from July 13 to 17 attracted about 350 overseas Chinese entrepreneurs and professionals from 16 countries and regions, said Cui Desheng, head of the Liaoning office of overseas Chinese affairs. Among them, 150 entered trade talks in Shenyang with another 150 or so local enterprises from Liaoning, while the remaining 200-odd sought business opportunities respectively in Changchun, capital of Jilin, and Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang.

Trade talks in Liaoning Province involved 253 projects in the agricultural produce intensive processing, bio-pharmaceutical, chemical, metallurgical and infrastructural construction sectors.

There are now about 35 million overseas Chinese around the world, many of whom possess abundant capital and command new and high technologies, according to Cui.

Combined capital of the overseas Chinese has amounted to US$2 trillion worldwide, Cui added.

The first cooperation and exchange convention of overseas Chinese enterprises in science and technology innovation was held in Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, in 2002, with US$745 million worth of cooperation contracts signed.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2004)