More than 3,000 representatives of 138 Teochew groups signed cooperation intention agreements worth a total of 200 billion yuan ($32.82 billion) on the opening dayof the 17th Teochew International Convention in Wuhan on Nov 13.

The Teochew are Chinese people native to the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province who speak the Teochew dialect, and the convention featured events including a Teochew businesspeople development forum, trade negotiations and promotions of various projects.

The promotions included 100 major investment projects in Hubei, which involved the sectors of electronic information, automobile and spare parts, and agricultural by-products processing. In addition, the Construction and Management Office of Wuhan East Lake Comprehensive Bonded Zone signed a 10 billion yuan framework agreement with International Teochew Investment Group (Wuhan), also on Nov 13.

The chairperson of this year's convention, Chen Shaorong, addressed participants, saying that the event was beneficial to Teochew organizations that were engaged in fundraising.

In addition, Chen also said that the many Teochew people entering China would contribute to the economic prosperity of the country – and also to Hubei, where 100,000 Teochew people own 2,000 investment enterprises.

A third wave of Teochew businesspeople are investing in the province. The first occurred in the early 1990s, when Chen invested 220 million yuan to build the Wuhan Garment Trade Center in Hankou. A second round of investment came after the turn of the century, when Vincent Lo, of Hong Kong Shui On Group, invested 10 billion yuan to build Wuhan Tiandi, and China's richest man, Li Ka-shing, invested in real estate in areas around Hankou's Jianghan Road. The current third wave of investment also involves Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent, who intends to build the R&D headquarters of wireless Internet technology in the city's Jiangxia district.

A total of 50 million Teochew people reside in countries and regions around the world, and 20 of them rank among China's top 100 richest people.

This totals up to investments worth over 50 billion yuan in sectors including real estate, textile, home appliance, packaging and printing, and medical treatment.

Since 1981 the convention has been held every two years in cities in China and overseas. The past 16 events have been held in Hong Kong, Macao, Shantou, Beijing, Guangzhou and countries such as Thailand, Singapore, France, the United States and Australia.

Edited by Le Qin and Niva Whyman