Leaders of nine regions in southern China, Hong Kong and Macao have vowed to further financial cooperation and promote smooth flow of capital, technology and personnel within the territory of the region.

Senior officials from the Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region have reached agreements on accelerating capital market development, building a property right trading system and a financial risk prevention mechanism, and some other issues during the PPRD Regional Cooperation and Development Forum in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province.

HK Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen promised to provide various financial tools and services to support PPRD-based enterprises and infrastructure construction.

More efforts will also be made to promote relaxation of restrictions on cooperation between financial institutions based in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, according to him.

Statistics show that some 370 mainland companies, including more than 100 from PPRD, have raised more than 1.5 trillion HK dollars (over 192 billion US dollars) via Hong Kong stock market.

The underdeveloped regions in PPRD boast great growth potential, but they should work harder to create a more favorable investment environment, improve their payment system and provide more convenient settlement services, said a senior official with Hong Kong Financial Administration.

The nine mainland regions also planned to build up a strategic alliance among rural credit cooperatives to make full use of the financial capacity there.

The PPRD should help local companies to go out and facilitate the inbound flow of investment, said Shao Ning, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

The next session will be held in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

GD-HK Cooperation

Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua met the HK Chief Executive Donald Tsang in Changsha, during the PPRD Forum.

The two sides will continue their close cooperation in cross-border infrastructures: Shenzhen-Hong Kong Western Corridor and Shenzhen Bay Port will be put into service as scheduled, the construction of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong special passengers rail will speed up, and the preparatory work of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will continue.

Cooperation in the service section will also be strengthened, while the emission of main pollutant in the Pear River Delta was expected to be greatly reduced through the co-efforts of Guangdong and Hong Kong.

Editor: Yan