Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

Growing business opportunities and an improving business environment in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, are attracting more overseas Chinese to start and expand their businesses there.

Tao Yuequn, chairman of Hefei-based optometry tech firm Ovctek China, plans to increase investment and expand production in the health industry as his enterprise's business is developing rapidly and is busy building Ovctek China's Phase II project in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone.

Tao, also vice-chairman of the Anhui Federation for Returned Overseas Chinese, received a doctorate in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1994 and returned to China in 2001.

Tao Yuequn. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

He said overseas Chinese-related departments in Anhui offered assistance in registration, visa processing and housing to help him set up the enterprise.

Through years of development, Ovctek China has become a high-tech enterprise specializing in developing technologies and services to prevent myopia and keep the eyes healthy.

Ovctek China is located in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

In recent years, with the rapid rise of strategic emerging industries in Anhui, many overseas Chinese-invested emerging industry projects have settled in the province.

According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 10,000 overseas Chinese-invested enterprises in Anhui and their investment amount accounts for about 60 percent of the province's total foreign investment.

At a project matchmaking meeting with overseas Chinese enterprises during the 2022 World Manufacturing Conference in Hefei in September, 32 projects were signed, of which nearly 80 percent were strategic emerging industry projects.

In 2013, Jiang Dabai, a Singaporean Chinese and chairman of China Applied Technology, first returned to Shenzhen from Singapore and then to Hefei. He said that the comprehensive cost of enterprises in Hefei only accounts for one third of those in first-tier cities.

Yu Xiaoxia, chairman of Jinglv Environment, is also preparing to increase capital and expand production in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone.

In the past 20 years, with the first-mover advantage of developing an integrated PPP project for sanitation, Yu has led the company to grow into a well-known brand in China's environmental protection industry and become a leader in the field of providing comprehensive environmental management solutions. In July 2022, the company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Yu said that Hefei's new energy vehicle industry is rich in resources. They are switching all original sanitation fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles and are making outdoor small low-speed unmanned sanitation vehicles, which are now undergoing prototype debugging and are expected to be put into use by the end of this year.