Pan-Pearl River Delta marks new breakthrough in China's regional cooperation, coordinated development
www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-27 22:35:20
GUANGZHOU, May 27 (Xinhuanet) -- The first Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) Regional Cooperation and Development Forum will be held nextweek in Hong Kong, Macao and Guangzhou.
Regional leaders from nine provinces, Hong Kong and Macao will gather then to discuss regional cooperation and join hands to promote development in the region.
PPRD, the largest regional combination in China, is China's newattempt in regional cooperation and development practice and also a breakthrough for coordinated development between the eastern regions, the central area and the west.
The PPRD region, also known as "9+2", involves Fujian, Jiangxi,Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan as well as the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
The special combination makes the PPRD region especially important in China. The win-win economic mechanism in this region is expected to become a leading force in China's economic development in the future.
In July 2003, Zhang Dejiang, secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, proposed theconcept of PPRD for the first time. Guangdong would play an activeforce to push forward economic cooperation with the neighboring provinces and regions as well as regions along the Pearl River, said Zhang.
This proposal was echoed by the concerned provinces and regions,including the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. As developed regions, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao need to expand their economic forces further to the neighboring area. At the same time, neighboring regions are in urgent need to realize cross-regional development.
Later, some leaders of the concerned regions made investigations and signed a series of contracts on trade, culture,science and technology, transportation and energy resources.
Now, the cross-regional cooperation between nine provinces and regions have extended from trade to economy, science and technology.
In October 2003, the first joint meeting of information industry officials in the PPRD region was held in Guangzhou, whichled to the agreement on further regional cooperation in science and technology.
The building of the PPRD region is expected to help realize thecentral government's support policy to Hong Kong and Macao while giving a stage to Hong Kong as the center of service industry and Macao as the regional platform of business and trade service.
Hong Kong and Macao face changes in their economic mechanisms and they need to rely on the scientific and technological forces from the mainland to support the changes.
The manufacturing industry in the mainland provinces and regions of the PPRD region in turn need to go to the world throughthe service industry in Hong Kong and Macao.
Hong Kong would, relying on the huge market of the PPRD, further carry out regional cooperation and development, said Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.
In the past 20 years after China took the opening up policy, thousands of businessmen from Hong Kong and Macao came to invest in Guangdong and especially in the PPRD region, which had made Guangdong an important manufacturing base in the world. And Hong Kong has changed into an international municipality of business and trade based on service industry.
"Almost all the manufacturing companies in Hong Kong have movedto the mainland, about 80 percent in Guangdong. The service industry contributes to 86 percent of Hong Kong's total productionvalue," said Leung Pak-yan, director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong.
"Our next step is to combine the strengths of the service industry in Hong Kong and the manufacturing industry in Guangdong and hence to establish the competitive advantages of Guangdong andHong Kong," said Leung.
On Nov. 6, 2003, a negotiation meeting was held in Zhuhai of Guangdong to promote cross-regional economic cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
Leaders from the three regions agreed that in the next 10 to 20years, the PPRD would become one of the most energetic economic centers in the world.
Meanwhile, the establishment of a free trade zone between Chinaand the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also made Guangdong and the neighboring area earnestly hope to break the regional barriers.
With the development of the free trade zone between China and ASEAN, Guangdong and the neighboring regions would face new chances of development, said Liang Guiquan, head of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences.
The regional cooperation and development in the PPRD region hasshown a bright future, said Zhong Yangsheng, executive deputy governor of Guangdong.
The first PPRD Regional Cooperation and Development Forum will lead the cooperation in the region into a new stage, said Zhong. Enditem
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