Contracts for 24 cooperation projects were signed in Shenyang on Wednesday between enterprises from northeast China's Liaoning Province and foreign firms.

The cooperation projects, worth a total of US$862 million, were signed during the Conference on International Exchange of Professionals (CIEP), which opened in Shenyang on Wednesday.

About 700 foreign delegations from 30 countries - including Russia, the US, Japan and France - are attending the conference.

Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, has played host to the conference four times previously. An important channel for introducing foreign innovations to China, the conference has already led to the inking of 11,800 agreements.

This is the first time the CIEP is being held in Shenyang. The event is expected to play a role in revitalizing China's old north-eastern industrial base by attracting top-level foreign expertise and technologies.

The 24 projects signed to date, plus 60 more worth US$300 million that are being discussed, cover areas such as manufacturing and machinery, electronics and electrical power, the petroleum and chemical industries, metallurgy and mining.

In contrast to the previous four conferences, this year's CIEP has drawn a large number of delegations from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, about 350 participants and 2,000 high-tech projects.

The conference is sponsored by the State Council's Office of the Leading Group for Revitalizing northeast China and Other Old Industrial Bases, the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA), and the government of Liaoning Province.

The number of foreign experts introduced to China is growing rapidly. During the early years of China's reform and opening up in the late 1970s, China only introduced about 1,000 foreign experts and professionals each year. The number has grown to 200,000 to 400,000 in recent years.

Last year, China introduced 340,000 foreign experts and professionals, according to SAFEA statistics.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2006)