Southern regions seek closer cooperation
(Xin Hua)
Updated: 2004-05-29 11:51

Government officials and specialists of nine southern Chinese mainland regions, and Hong Kong and Macao, will gather for a forum on cooperation and development from June 1 to 3.

Xu Shangwu, secretary-general of the Organizing Committee for the Forum on Regional Cooperation and Development in the Greater Pearl River Delta, said the forum will cherish the main theme of working together for a bright future via cooperation and development.

Participants will deliver speeches on the overriding theme, and discuss ways to promote cooperation and development in the greater Pearl River Delta, which is composed of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as well as Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

The greater Pearl River Delta has a fine foundation for regional cooperation and prospects in this regard will be even brighter in the wake of China's admission into the World Trade Organization, establishment and expansion of the Sino-ASEAN Free Trade Zone and implementation of Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) agreed upon between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and Macao, said Xu.

"Promoting cooperation and development in the Greater Pearl River Delta will be conducive to prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and Macao, to helping the eastern, central and western Chinese mainland regions realize economic interaction and balanced growth while complementing each other with their advantages and to enhancing their overall strength and competitiveness, as well as to expansion of cooperation between China and ASEAN, and within Asia," said Xu, who is also deputy secretary-general of Guangdong provincial government.

According to Xu, the forum, the first of the kind, will be held in Hong Kong for the first day, in Macao for the second day and then to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, on the third day.

At the end of the forum, a framework agreement concerning regional cooperation in the Greater Pearl River Delta will be signed among the governments of the concerned regions, said Xu.

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