The 2009 Tianjin Entrepreneurship and Development Fair for Overseas Chinese Professionals ended on Wednesday. The fair brought 65 signed agreements worth 6.1 billion yuan to costal city in northern China.

Organized by the Oversea Chinese Affairs of the State Council and the local government, the fair was held from September 22 to 23 in Tianjin’s Binhai High Tech Industrial Park. It was the largest of its kind held in Tianjin to date, local media reported.

Over 260 overseas Chinese entrepreneurs and professionals from 17 countries held talks with Tianjin's enterprises on biomedicine, information technology, real estate, finance, new energy, new materials among other high tech industries at the fair.

Delegates to the fair also inspected the investment environment in the Binhai High Tech Development Area, an industrial park developed by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Tianjin municipal government. According to research by CCID Group, a leading consultancy, the park ranked first in competiveness of investment environment among all industrial parks in China.

Ren Qiliang, deputy diretor of Oversea Chinese Affairs of the State Council, said Tianjin is developing rapidly and urged overseas Chinese to "fully develop their talents and specialties here."

Tianjin has become China's third fastest-growing city despite the global economic downturn thanks to a huge government investment stimulus. According to the statistics from the Tianjin Statistics Bureau, Tianjin's gross domestic product (GDP) was 315.485 billion yuan in the first half of 2009, 16.2 times higher than the same period last year, and 9.1 percent higher than the national average.