Delta and neighbors told to join hands

Cooperation will boost growth, Vice-Premier Wang Yang said

Vice-Premier Wang Yang has urged the provinces and regions of the Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation bloc to break down local protectionism and deepen economic cooperation to deal with increasingly fierce domestic and foreign competition.

"The PPRD provinces and regions should establish an open, fair and transparent cooperative system to boost their economic growth and meet the challenges in the years ahead," Wang said in his keynote speech at the Ninth High-Level Forum on PPRD Regional Cooperation and Development, which opened in the Guizhou provincial capital on Monday.

"Unhealthy competition and repeated construction in the delta region should be avoided," he said.

"The PPRD regional cooperation bloc has now become a flag in boosting regional cooperation in the mainland and a good platform for promoting economic ties between the mainland and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions," Wang said.

The regional economy has witnessed rapid growth, while infrastructure in the region has greatly improved since PPRD economic cooperation was initiated in 2004, according to Wang.

PPRD provinces and regions have signed agreements covering more than 18,000 cooperative projects with a total investment of more than 3 trillion yuan ($483.87 billion) in the past nine years, Wang said.

But the region now faces challenges and opportunities, he said.

The PPRD region also faces competition from the Yangtze River Delta region, the Bohai Bay economic circle and other economic blocs centered in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world, Wang added.