6th World Hakka Businessmen Convention in Meizhou to promote foreign exchange, GBA development

The Sixth World Hakka Businessmen Convention is set to take place next month in Meizhou city, Guangdong province, poised to promote connections and cooperation among Hakka business representatives and chambers of commerce globally.

Among the more than 800 attendees to attend the event from Nov 2 to 4 will be officials, diplomatic personnel, leaders of Chinese diaspora, business representatives, experts and scholars from more than 100 nations and regions around the world.

Five parallel sessions will also take place in France, Canada, Argentina, Australia and Mauritius to further increase the global influence of the event.

Guo Yile, deputy secretary-general of the Guangdong provincial government, said that the province attaches great importance to the event. "The event has been regarded as one of the province's three major platforms that help Guangdong, a major production base in the world, to open its door wider and expand its Sino-foreign exchanges and cooperation," Guo remarked at a news conference in Guangzhou on Thursday.

To promote Sino-international exchanges and cooperation, the event will feature investment and trade fairs, academic forums, special lectures Hakka cultural promotion, Hakka cuisine tasting, and sports competitions, said Guo.

The convention is also expected to help promote the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and accelerate the economic development of Meizhou, a mountainous city in the eastern part of Guangdong and a former Chinese Soviet area, she added.

Another goal of the biennial event is to help Meizhou and the other old revolutionary base areas in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces to better integrate into the development of the GBA, according to Guo.

Chen Jinluan, deputy mayor of Meizhou, said that Meizhou will seize the opportunity to demonstrate the city's economic achievements using exchange and investigation activities. The aim is to promote the expansion of exchanges and cooperation with the rest of the world and integration into GBA construction.

The event was first held in Meizhou in 2009.