KUNMING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The 17th ASEAN Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs Conference will kick off next week in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.

More than 600 overseas Chinese businesspeople from 53 countries and regions have so far signed for the event held June 10-15. The first Belt and Road conference of overseas Chinese associations and other exchanging activities will be concurrently held.

Projects valued at a total 6 billion yuan (868 million U.S. dollars) are expected to be signed during the event, together with a memorandum on cooperation between the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and the Yunnan provincial government.

The two sides will work together to promote targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in Yunnan.

Incomplete statistics show that some 2.5 million overseas Chinese living in more than 40 countries and regions are Yunnan natives, said He Xianghong from the Yunnan Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.

By the end of 2017, there were 1,084 overseas Chinese-funded enterprises in Yunnan, with fixed assets of 65 billion yuan.