"Xiamen will continue developing related work of overseas Chinese affairs and attract more overseas Chinese enterprises to invest there," said Li Xiaoping, deputy director of the Xiamen Municipal Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, at a symposium held on April 24.

It was the first time for the Xiamen Municipal Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office to organize a working symposium since the office was reorganized in September last year. The symposium hosted leaders of the Xiamen Torch High-tech Industrial Development Zone and representatives of overseas Chinese enterprises in the zone to attend.

Li also led a group of staff to visit the zone before the symposium.

Supportive funds were also issued to the award recipients of the third batch of major teams of overseas Chinese announced by the National Overseas Chinese Affairs Office at the symposium.

Li noted at the symposium that Xiamen, as a notable hometown of overseas Chinese, has attached great importance to overseas Chinese affairs-related work. The Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office has adopted various measures in attracting foreign investment. "We play an important role as the guide or middleman between overseas Chinese investors and enterprises in Xiamen that need investment," she said.

Li gave further emphasis that the team from Eternus Biomedicine (Xiamen) Co Ltd - a Sino-foreign joint venture company - is an elite group among overseas Chinese entrepreneurial teams and is one of their major service targets.

A total of four entrepreneurial teams in Xiamen have been awarded as "major overseas Chinese entrepreneurial teams" by the State Overseas Chinese Affairs Office since 2009 and have been awarded an accumulative supportive expenditure of 1.2 million yuan ($193,464).

By Lu Ting from China Daily Fujian Bureau.