He urged the PPRD bloc to map out strategic cooperation plans, further improve their cooperative system, enrich their cooperation and pursue cooperative achievements.

Hu Chunhua, Party chief of Guangdong province, has promised to spare no effort to advance economic cooperation with other provinces and regions of the PPRD region in the coming years.

"In addition, the expansion of cooperation with neighboring Hong Kong and Macao, Guangdong will expand investment in building infrastructure facilities to connect the southern province with the rest of the bloc and deepen economic cooperation," Hu said.

The PPRD regional economic cooperation bloc, dubbed "nine plus two", encompasses the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and the Hong Kong and Macao SARs.

It covers one-fifth of the area and one-third of the population of the country.

Excluding Hong Kong and Macao, the economy of the region accounts for one-third of the national total.

Chun-ying Leung, chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR, said Hong Kong would continue to act as a "super connector" in boosting cooperation with other provinces and regions of the PPRD.

"Hong Kong has attracted more than 1,300 foreign companies to set up their Asia-Pacific headquarters, and it has more than 5,000 commercial consulting firms, as well as 800 local and 70 foreign law firms.

All these organizations "can help companies from other parts of the PPRD region seek Sino-foreign cooperation and offshore investment," Leung said.

Hong Kong has also benefited from economic cooperation with the PPRD provinces and regions in past years, Leung added.

According to Leung, Hong Kong's investment in the PPRD region accumulated to 900 billion yuan as of 2004, jumping to more than 2 trillion yuan in 2102.

Annual trade between Hong Kong and other PPRD provinces and regions also soared from $430 billion in 2004 to $1.5 trillion last year.

Southwest China's provinces that are part of the PPRD region have been eager to seek more economic cooperation with the rest of the regional economic bloc.

Meng Qiliang, deputy governor of Southwest China's Guizhou province, said his province has more than 1,000 projects in which it will seek cooperation and investment from other provinces and regions of the bloc during the annual event.

Yunnan province, also in Southwest China, has a total of 130 projects with an investment of more than 224.4 billion yuan that it will offer at the fair to seek investment and cooperation, according to Du Yong, director of the province's economic committee. Yunnan has attracted investment of more than 301.7 billion yuan in the past nine years.

Guizhou has attracted 2,293 projects from other provinces and regions of the bloc since the first Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation and Development Forum and Economic and Trade Fair was held in 2004.