OSAKA, Japan Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Over 2,600 ethnic Chinese business persons and other figures from around the world will gather in Japan next month to enhance business exchange and networking in a three-day convention, organizers said Tuesday.

The 9th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention (WCEC) will be held at Kobe on Sept. 15-16 and move to Osaka on Sept. 17, with some 3,600 attendants from 33 countries and regions, organizers told reporters. Over 70 percent of them would be ethnic Chinese.

"It would be the largest WCEC held outside China," Luo Yiwen, deputy chairman of the WCEC organizing committee told Xinhua, adding that it is also the first time that the biennial convention is held in Japan.

The convention is aimed at promoting exchanges among global ethnic Chinese as well as those between Chinese and Japanese. The theme of the 9th WCEC is to win with peace, harmony and cooperation and to benefit the world.

This year is also the Chinese Year in Japan which is marked with a series of cultural, artistic and exchange programs in Japan.

Luo said that Japanese business circle has been expecting a lot from the WCEC. Several famous Japanese corporations have become the convention's sponsors and key Japanese business figures will show up at the meeting.

The highlights of the convention includes speeches by well-known entrepreneurs, discussion over economy, Asian city development, medical exchanges and other topics between Chinese and Japanese personalities.

During the convention, presentations of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo will also be launched in Japan, together with a number of other cultural, sports and tourism programs.

The World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention has been successfully held in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Vancouver, Melbourne, Nanjing, Malaysia and Seoul since its birth in 1991.