The Shenzhen government offered 40 million yuan ($6.6 million) on Wednesday in seed funds for 122 young entrepreneurs, who studied overseas, to start a business in the coastal city.

The 122 winners were selected from 170 applicants who submitted project proposals in 12 sectors, including finance, software design and development of new materials.

City mayor Xu Qin, together with Zhang Jianguo, the head of China's State Foreign Expert Affairs Administration, handed out "checks" (symbolic plates with the amount of money) to representatives of young entrepreneurs during a conference on international exchanges among professionals in Shenzhen.

The city has emerged as one of the most popular destinations for young entrepreneurs who received education overseas and planned to start their own business after graduation.

According to the conference's organizing committee, there are more than 1,700 companies run by returned students from overseas. Almost all of these companies are high tech with some 30 companies creating annual output value of more than 100 million yuan.