A bird's-eye view of Qingtian county. [Photo/Lishui Daily]

A consultation event co-organized by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC at four levels – the national, provincial, municipal and county levels – took place on Nov 10 in Qingtian county.

The key event in the county – located in Lishui city, in East China's Zhejiang province – focused on the development of the overseas Chinese economy in Qingtian, which is home to 381,000 overseas Chinese people.

More than 100,000 of them are involved in international trade, generating an annual trade volume of about $40 billion. The county also earns nearly $1.7 billion in foreign exchange settlements each year.

To boost the return and utilization of overseas Chinese capital, Qingtian has been optimizing its financial services related to overseas Chinese in recent years.

It's implemented various innovative measures – such as easing personal remittance settlements, offering personal multi-purpose foreign exchange loans, setting up village-level foreign currency exchange points and issuing over 20 policy documents.

These measures are said to have created an appealing environment for attracting overseas Chinese. They have also transformed Qingtian from being a county rich in overseas Chinese resources to a county that is a driver in the overseas Chinese economy.

Qingtian's overseas Chinese have about 1,000 overseas warehouses located internationally. The county has issued personal foreign currency loans totaling $335 million.

Qingtian has also successfully hosted four sessions of the Overseas Chinese Imported Commodities Expo, with a cumulative revenue estimated at nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.38 billion).