An opening ceremony was held Sunday morning in this provincial capital of northeast China's Liaoning 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 enterpreneurs 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 NortheastChina 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 developmentin the region, but also provide foreign investors, including overseas Chinese, with wonderdul business opportunties, 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 enterpreneurs 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 enterpreneurs 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 opportunties respectively in Changchun, capital ofJilin, 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 have amounted to two trillion US dollars 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 745 million US dollars worth of cooperation contracts signed.