More overseas Chinese entrepreneurs have shown great interest in China's strategy to rejuvenate the old industrial base in the northeast, as a national event for overseas Chinese enterprises in technological innovation cooperation is going on in Shenyang, capital of the northeastern Liaoning Province.

"The region's growing market and improving investment environment attracts us. The central government's strategy to revitalize the rust-belt northeast region will give more business opportunities to overseas Chinese businessmen," said Qu Jianben, vice president of the Austrian Overseas Chinese Chamber, on Wednesday.

Some Chinese-Austrian entrepreneurs had come to the region to seek partners for cooperation, Qu said.

Li Wancai, vice governor of Liaoning Province, echoed that the investment from overseas Chinese businessmen is growing rapidly inthe northeast region.

"We welcome overseas Chinese entrepreneurs to help revitalize the rust-belt northeast," said Li, also a member of the organizingcommittee of the Second Cooperation and Exchange Convention of Overseas Chinese Enterprises in Science and Technology Innovation.

He told a press conference that the state-level convention would serve as an important platform to pursue the country's strategy of reinvigorating northeast China.

The convention 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.

Organizers said they would make full use of the convention to let overseas entrepreneurs know more about the rejuvenation of China's northeastern traditional industrial base and to establish closer contacts with overseas Chinese entrepreneurs to upgrade northeast China's industrial structure.

Liaoning Province alone has submitted 253 projects to the convention to look for partners for cooperation in information technology, biotechnology, new materials, new energy and environmental protection, according to the organizing committee.

More than 200 overseas Chinese entrepreneurs from 21 countries and regions have registered for the national convention, which will close on July 20.

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

The first convention of the kind was held in 2002 in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

China considers the revival of the northeast industrial base asthe third most important long-term strategy after the opening-up in the southeast 20 years ago and the western development policy five years ago.

The northeast region, including Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces contributed China's first batch of steel, machine tools, locomotives and planes after the founding of New China in 1949, and still has potential in these fields.

Built in the 1950s, many of the traditional industrial enterprises became less competitive and some have been losing money over the past 20 years when China shifted from its planned economy towards the reform and opening-up drive.

Source: Xinhua