Luo Haocai, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), announced the opening of the 20th World Hakka Convention in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, on Wednesday night.

More than 3,500 guests and delegates from over 20 countries including the US, Canada and France, as well as 17 mainland provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, attended.

Zhang Zhongwei, governor of Sichuan, said at the opening ceremony that the conference showed the great cohesiveness of Chinese people, which will boost the prosperity and development of all Chinese around the world.

The vice chairman of Taiwan's Kuomintang Party, Wu Poh-hsiung, said he was very excited to attend the conference and expressed his warmest greetings to all Hakka people in the world on behalf of the five million in Taiwan.

Wu said Taiwan's Hakka people have long expected the unification of the country, adding that this will always be the mutual goal for all Chinese across the Taiwan Straits.

During the convention, symposiums on the roots and migration of Hakka people and their prosperity, as well as on China's western region's development, will be held.

After the first was held in Hong Kong in 1971, the convention has been held in 15 cities around the world and the next will be held in Taiwan next year.

The Hakka people, known as Kejia in Mandarin, are part of China's Han ethnic majority who share the same written characters with other Han sub-groups, such as Cantonese and Fukiennese.

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2005)