The Pan-Pearl River Delta: A Breakthrough in Regional Cooperation

The Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD), China's most extensive regional alliance, mutually beneficial economic structure that will take to the forefront of China's booming development.

The Pearl River.

PPRD is also known as the 9+2, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, plus Hongkong and Macao special administrative regions. These eight provinces and one autonomous region make up one fifth of the area, one third of the population, and one third the economic aggregate of the whole country.

Zhang Dejiang, secretary of CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, first proposed Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation in July 2003. It won the central government's full support and encouragement, evoked positive response among the provinces, the autonomous region, Hongkong and Macao, and gained thorough-going social approval. The eight provinces and one autonomous region have achieved tremendous inter-provincial cooperative breakthroughs in the economic and technological fields.

Hong Kong and Macao's role within PPDR is to promote the eight provinces and one autonomous region's manufacturing industry. This will be accomplished by Hong Kong enacting its role as main world service center and Macao performing the function of regional business and trade service platform.

Regional cooperative development apart, the Pan-Pearl River Delta also aims at the international market. It was the establishment and development of Sino-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Free Trade Zone that motivated Guangdong Province and its peripheral areas to break borders and enhance trade relations to become a true bridgehead.

Zhong Yangsheng, executive vice governor of Guangdong Province, is confident of the enormous potential and glowing prospects of Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation and development. The first Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation and Development Forum and Trade Fair in July will have enormous and positive influence, taking regional cooperation into a new phase of development.