Harbin hopes to welcome investors and businesspeople from around the world in a campaign to revitalize its local industries, city officials said.

The officials made their remarks during the 2020 Boao Forum for Entrepreneurs, which took place on Friday and Saturday in Boao, Hainan province, in South China.

The Harbin government organized a variety of promotional activities to make the provincial capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province well-known to entrepreneurs.

Harbin Night, as a key part among the many activities during the forum, attracted nearly 500 renowned business leaders.

A video introduced the city's history, culture, natural resources, industrial development, landscape and environment while offering a glimpse into the daily lives of local people.

Endowed with rich natural resources and rich mineral reserves, Harbin also has beneficial policies and a business-friendly environment developed over the course of many years. With a well-preserved ecosystem, unique exotic customs and strong industrial foundation, the city has broad prospects for industrial development, according to officials.

At the event, orchestral music played by trumpeters, horn players and timpanists created a festival atmosphere. Dancers from Harbin Ballet staged a performance of the classic ballet The Nutcracker, composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

In addition to the performances, the event also included an exhibition where 13 key food enterprises showcased their products and invited visitors to have a taste.

The food enterprises brought more than 40 kinds of signature farm products.

In addition to the popular red sausage, pancakes, roasted cold noodles, Wuchang rice and Russian-style sour cucumber, there were also glutinous rice dumplings, corn and pumpkin soup and chili sauce displayed during Harbin Night.

The event showcased the Harbin delegation's ambition and determination to push development, said Gong Xixiang, an official at Xinhua News Agency. "Heilongjiang is my hometown," Gong said. "I wish to extend my invitation to you. In January, please visit the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival to experience the magic of ice and snow and the European-style Harbin."

Sun Zhe, mayor of Harbin, said he hoped entrepreneurs would seize the historic opportunity of the national strategy to revitalize Northeast China by making use of Harbin's industrial platforms such as the city's new area, free trade zone, comprehensive bonded zone and high-tech zone. "By making use of the platforms, entrepreneurs will promote industrial development in fields such as green food, equipment manufacturing, smart city, big data, sports, tourism and healthcare."

"Today's Harbin presents great potential and a more inclusive attitude," said Cheng Xiaoming, the city's vice-mayor. "We sincerely hope entrepreneurs and friends will focus on Harbin, learn more about it and invest in the city.

"We will try our best to provide all the convenient conditions so that all investors can start and develop businesses smoothly, and live happily in Harbin."

Dong Mingzhu, president of Gree Electric Appliances, introduced Wuchang rice at the event.

In recent years, the rice produced in Harbin's Wuchang city has become a first choice for many Chinese families. Dong said she is also a fan of Wuchang rice.

"The rice is well-known in China, and it tastes very good," she said.

Located in the south of Heilongjiang province, Wuchang has a mild temperate continental climate. With sufficient rivers and abundant sunshine, it grows high-quality rice, said Yin Chengyun, Party secretary of Wuchang city.

On Friday, a digital marketing summit was held during the forum. At the summit, Lan Feng, head of Harbin's culture, radio, television and tourism bureau, explained the essence of Harbin's ice and snow culture in three aspects.

The first aspect is to shape the city's ice and snow culture by improving its theme parks, ski resorts, and ice and snow tourism routes. The second aspect is to expand the ice and snow cultural influence by launching ice and snow-themed festival activities. The third is to promote innovation in developing related products to enrich the intellectual property value.

"Harbin's ice and snow culture is not only rooted in its long-standing history, but also the tradition of the people living here," Lan said.

During the forum, the Harbin delegation tried to draw attraction to the city through picture displays and an ice and snow landscape miniature exhibition.

Concurrent with Harbin Night, a special online promotion of ice and snow, titled "the Pearl on the Ice and Snow Crown－Harbin" was launched. It will continue until this Friday.

Harbin in winter is a city of ice and snow and in summer a resort for vacation. Tourism in winter and summer can be connected together to form a cycle and create an all-season tourism model, said Xu Lianzheng, co-founder of Kmind Strategy Consulting.

Xu said he believes Harbin should take the agriculture as its leading industry to promote the mutual development of agriculture and tourism.

In recent years, Harbin's tourism industry has seen robust development. Between 2016-19, the passenger throughput of Harbin Taiping International Airport ranked first among the four major airports in Northeast China.

The number of people staying overnight and the income from ice and snow tourism have maintained double-digit growth, reaching 23.4 million and 39.17 billion yuan ($5.98 billion) respectively during the snow and ice season in 2019.