The Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region's 9+2 agreement has boosted Sichuan Province's infrastructure construction, advanced its economic development, and created more jobs for locals.

Governor Zhang Zhongwei said this in an interview with China Daily at the Second PPRD Regional Co-operation and Development Forum and Trade Talk in Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan.

The 9+2 agreement, or Regional Co-operation and Development Framework Agreement, covers the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the two SARs, Hong Kong and Macao.

The region encompassing the 11 members has great importance, as it accounts for a massive 47 per cent of China's gross domestic product and more than half of its international trade.

PPRD co-operation aims at phasing out regional trade barriers and building the area into a vast common market, although this is expected to take a long time to achieve.

The ambitious co-operation scheme, which was the brainchild of Guangdong Provincial Communist Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang, was officially launched in June last year.

The agreement is pioneering as it is the first time that the governments of the 11 members have agreed to co-operate economically, something which will benefit all of them.

Zhang said that co-operation with members of the 9+2 agreement has seen the opening of the Chengdu-Shenzhen maritime and railway joint transportation passageway and sped up construction of cross-provincial communication facilities, building a smooth logistics channel.

Thanks to the support of the Ministry of Railway and the General Administration of Customs and the efforts of Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, the Chengdu-Shenzhen Railway Cargo Transportation Train started operation in April last year.

The rail service -- its stops, route, number, time of arrival and departure, and price are fixed -- is a through train from Chengdu to Shenzhen. It has shortened the cargo transport distance between the two cities by nearly 200 kilometres, cutting short the travel time from 11 to 3 days.

Immediately after the cargo from Chengdu arrives at Shenzhen Customs, the latter would handle the customs formalities for the former and vice versa.

Construction of the Yibin-Shuifu section of Erlianhaote-Hekou National Highway is in full swing and is expected to open in 2007. Both Shuifu and Hekou are in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, while Yibin is in Sichuan and Erlianhaote in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

In addition, construction of the Sichuan section of the Lanzhou-Mohan highway is being accelerated, Zhang said.

Lanzhou is capital of Northwest China's Gansu Province, while Mohan is in Yunnan.

Sichuan's ties of economic and trade co-operation with members of the 9+2 agreement and Hong Kong and Macao have been closer, Zhang said.

Electronic products, small home electronic devices and garments from coastal regions in southern and eastern China, all of which are members of the 9+2 agreement, enjoy a big market share in Sichuan, while Sichuan's farm produce and labour-intensive products sell well in coastal areas, he said.

Last year, Sichuan's imports and exports via Hong Kong and Macao registered US$649 million. Its exports alone hit US$610 million, up 58.5 per cent over the previous year and accounting for 15 per cent of the province's total.

To cater to the needs for workers by enterprises in coastal provinces in Guangdong and Fujian, Sichuan has reinforced professional training of its labour force. And the efforts have paid off.

Last July, enterprises from Shenzhen hired 1,807 locals after holding a job fair in the educationally less advanced Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan.

Two months later, the Sichuan Provincial Labour office attended a jobs fair sponsored by four provinces and one autonomous region of the PPRD region and signed labour contracts with Guangdong to send 55,200 workers there, the governor said.

Rewards of delta tourism bond

Tourist industry professionals expressed high hopes yesterday for co-operation among all parties concerned in the Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region, but had reservations on some technical issues such as mutual recognition of credentials.

Macao Tourist Guide Association Director Wu Wai-Fong said yesterday that closer co-operation by the tourist sectors in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao would give a big boost to the competitiveness of PPRD in the regional market.

She said the imminent opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, the listing of Macao's historic urban centre as a United Nations-designated World Cultural Heritage Site, and the growing number of attractions in Guangdong Province will make the PPRD region a tourist resort.

The PPRD region encompasses the mainland provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hainan, Guizhou and Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Hong Kong and Macao. Top officials, academics and business people from the nine provinces and two SARs are attending the second PPRD Regional Co-operation and Development Forum in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, this week. Tourism is one of the main topics of the event.

Wu also pointed out that Macao needed to do a lot in order to take full advantage of its World Cultural Heritage Site status. For instance, the SAR government should simplify entry procedures for foreign tourists and train an adequate number of guides proficient in major foreign languages and Putonghua and with broad knowledge about Macao, especially its cultural heritage.

As for the mutual recognition of credentials for professional tour guides, she said the issue had been raised several times but most of the local guides were worried the practice would threaten their jobs if more mainland counterparts came to work here.

Wu said she was fairly sure local guides would survive such a policy change, but time is not ripe for the SAR government to give the nod. And she was confident the relevant authorities would commit to it only when local professionals are ready for the challenge.

(China Daily HK Edition July 27, 2005)