SHIJIAZHUANG, Nov. 8 -- Contracts worth over 140 billion yuan (20 bln U.S. dollars) were signed on Thursday as a record number of businesspeople gathered at the 3rd World Hebei Entrepreneurs Convention.

The convention opened in Hengshui, a city in northern China's Hebei Province, to draw investments into the province.

Contracts signed at the event cover areas including high-end equipment manufacturing, new material, new energy, biomedicine, modern service, modern agriculture and urban infrastructure, according to organizers.

Wang Huilin, vice chair of the Hebei Federation of Industry and Commerce, said Hebei has access to major opportunities through China's coordinated development plan for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, construction of the Xiongan New Area and co-hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics with Beijing.

"All these have opened up new space and injected new momentum into Hebei's private economy," Wang said.

More than 800 entrepreneurs from China and abroad attended the biennial event, which aims to encourage entrepreneurs hailing from Hebei to make investments in their home province.