Chen Fei, mayor of Yantai, delivers a keynote speech and promotes the city’s newly-built free trade area at the 10th Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention on Technology Innovation and Cooperation in Yantai on Oct 31. [Photo/WeChat Account: ytribao]

The 10th Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention on Technology Innovation and Cooperation opened in Yantai, a coastal city in East China’s Shandong province, on Oct 31.

More than 260 overseas Chinese business elites from 37 countries and regions such as the United States, Malaysia and Germany gathered to seek more cooperation opportunities.

Chen Fei, mayor of Yantai, attended the conference and delivered a keynote speech.

He expressed a warm welcome to all the guests and said that, as a renowned hometown of overseas Chinese in the northern reaches of the Yangtze River, Yantai has always attached importance to exchange and cooperation with overseas Chinese businessmen.

The coastal city enjoys a flourishing real economy and strong prospects for developing emerging industries, he stressed.

Since reform and opening-up began 40 years ago, Yantai has attracted more than 100 of the world's top 500 enterprises, which have invested in 273 projects. The city aims to seek more cooperation with foreign companies via the conference.

Nearly 100 agreements worth 4.9 billion yuan ($710 million) were signed among the participating companies.

Yantai apples and other featured agro-products were highlighted in the agreements.

"We have made an agreement with Longkou Shengxing Fruit and Vegetable Company to sell Yantai’s apple products in New York," Zhang Zhaoli, president of the Yantai Chamber of Commerce in New York.

He said that on Nov 4, three containers containing close to 60 tons of apples will be shipped to New York.