BEIJING - Chinese and US officials pledged Wednesday to strengthen their sub-national economic cooperation and remove some Chinese entrepreneurs' apprehensions about investing the United States.

"Provinces and states are the backbone forces that sustain the economic cooperation between China and the United States," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai as he addressed a group of Chinese and US province or state leaders, adding that there is great potential for sub-national cooperation between the two sides.

The leaders, eight from China and six from the United States, gathered in a Beijing hotel to attend a China-US Governors Dialogue.

Two-way trade and investment have benefited both China and the United States, said Washington State's chief Christine Gregoire at the meeting, calling for more efforts made at the province- or state-level to create business opportunities and jobs in the two countries.

China is now the second largest trading partner of the United States and its third largest export market with bilateral trade totaling 385.34 billion US dollars in 2010, according to China's Commerce Ministry.

Meanwhile, the two countries see more and more tourists from each other. Statistics show that 1.4 million Americans visited China while 930,000 Chinese visited the United States from January to August this year. The total two-way arrivals grew by 13.2 percent year on year.

Guam governor Eddie Calvo was one of the US officials trying to invite more Chinese tourists.

The island has received a lot of tourists from Asia, but tourists from China to Guam were not enough, he said.

To attract Chinese tourists, Guam is setting up an office in China, said Calvo, adding that the island has been working with the federal government to see how it can make programs for tourists coming from China.

Calvo said Guam is also planning to start direct flights between Guam and China.

During their meeting, US governors realized that many Chinese entrepreneurs are afraid of investing in the United States, which is especially eager for money amid the ongoing financial crisis.

Statistics show that US companies had invested 65.22 billion US dollars in China by the end of 2010 while Chinese companies invested 4.73 billion dollars in the United States, which is comparatively small but growing at a quickened speed.

According to a latest report released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China's outbound direct investment surged 21.7 percent year-on-year to 68.81 billion US dollars in 2010, growing for the ninth straight year and recording an average annual growth rate of 49.9 percent.

Chinese businessmen believe that their large-scale direct investment will fail in the United States for political reasons.

In early 2011, China's Huawei Technologies Co. withdrew its agreement to buy the assets of 3Leaf Systems of the US under pressure of the US Committee on Foreign Investment. That case discouraged quite a lot of Chinese businessmen that mull for investment in the world's largest economy.

In his part, Zhao Hongzhu, a leader of China's Zhejiang Province, said that the issue of large-scale investment "demands an in-depth study," indicating that he also recognized the Chinese investors' worry.

US officials are trying to get rid of the worry and attract more investment from China.

The United States are "very open" to Chinese investment and the US governors and their states are eager for Chinese investments, said US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Robert Hormats on the sidelines of the Dialogue.

The US side will step up high-level efforts to underline the importance of attracting Chinese investments, and take the governors forum as a bridge to facilitate bilateral trade and investment by providing accurate and direct business information, he said.