Convention held to push cooperation with overseas Chinese entrepreneurs

Over 200 overseas Chinese entrepreneurs from 21 countries and regions have registered for a national convention for overseas Chinese enterprises in cooperation in technological innovation that opened Tuesday in Shenyang, capital of the northeastern Liaoning Province.

They represent such fields as infrastructure, energy, textile, food processing, information technology, biomedicine, modern agriculture, chemical industry, machinery and environmental

protection, said Cui Desheng, director of Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs under the Liaoning Provincial Government.

Chinese officials, specialists, scientists and businessmen from the high-tech sector will also attend the convention, which will close on July 20, according to Cui, also a senior official of the convention's organizing committee.

The convention, bearing the full name of "the Second Cooperation and Exchange Convention of Overseas Chinese Enterprises in Science and Technology Innovation," is jointly organized by State Council's Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs, ministries of science and technology, personnel and commerce, State Council's Office of Revitalizing Northeast China and governments of the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang.

Cui said revival of China's northeast and win-win cooperation for all are the two main themes of the eight-day event.

"We will make full use of the convention to let overseas Chinese entrepreneurs learn more about the rejuvenation of the traditional industrial base in northeast China, and to establish closer ties with them to upgrade industrial structure in the region," said Cui.

He said Liaoning Province alone has submitted 253 projects to the convention, seeking partners for cooperation in information technology, biotechnology, new materials, new energy and environmental protection.

The convention would also offer opportunities for overseas entrepreneurs to present their high-tech products to the Chinese market.

A dozen ministers and governors from the three northeastern provinces have been invited to the gathering. They are expected to give speeches on China's latest policies on revitalizing old industrial bases in northeast China, he added.

The first convention of the kind was held in 2002 in Hangzhou, capital of the eastern Zhejiang Province. More than 300 overseas Chinese businessmen attended the event and reached deals for cooperation in 111 projects.

Overseas Chinese entrepreneurs throughout the world have always been attentive to the social and economic development of their home country and have been working for China's prosperity in many ways -- particularly through capital and technical investment.

Investment from overseas Chinese entrepreneurs in diverse sectors has boosted the country's overall development and contributed greatly to the rise of small- and medium-sized township and village enterprises since China's reform and opening up toward the end of the 1970s.

Incomplete statistics indicate that overseas Chinese across the globe boast a total of 2 trillion US dollars in capital, and one third of the researchers at leading laboratories in North America and Europe are of Chinese origin.

By the end of 2003, the investment brought to China by overseas enterprises had topped 500 billion US dollars, 65 percent of which was provided by overseas Chinese.

Source: Xinhua