Provinces and regions from the Pan Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region signed a total of 780 co-operative and investment projects valued at 549.3 million yuan ($89.6 million) in this Guangdong provincial capital on Sunday.

The projects signed during the 10th PPRD Regional Co-operation and Development Forum and Economic and Trade Fair in Guangzhou mainly involve the industries of infrastructure, energy, new and high technology, and construction of industrial parks, transfers of industries and protection of environment and ecology. The two-day annual event ends on Monday.

Hu Chunhua, Party chief of Guangdong province, urged PPRD provinces and regions to spare no effort to advance economic co-operation in the years ahead.

The economic co-operation among PPRD provinces and regions has been proven to have played a big part in promoting the region’s economic development, according to Hu.

The regional economy has witnessed rapid growth, while infrastructure in the region has greatly improved since PPRD economic co-operation was initiated in 2004, Hu said at the opening ceremony.

Hu said he supported and encouraged more Guangdong companies to invest and set up branches in other PPRD provinces and regions in the coming years.

He promised that Guangdong will expand investment in constructing infrastructural facilities to connect the southern province with the rest of the PPRD region and deepen economic co-operation.

The PPRD regional economic co-operation bloc, dubbed “nine plus two”, encompasses the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Hainan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Hong Kong and Macao special administrative region.

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

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

In the past nine years PPRD provinces and regions have signed agreements covering more than 19,500 co-operative projects with a total investment of more than 3.76 trillion yuan.

Last year alone, PPRD provinces and regions from the mainland reached a foreign trade volume of more than $1.5 trillion and attracted an actual foreign investment of more than $60 billion.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn