9+2 Meeting Closes in Guangzhou
The first meeting of the Pan Pearl River Development
Council closed in Guangzhou today. In the Chinese press,
it was widely called the 9+2 meeting, because it included
the nine Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan,
Hainan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian,
plus the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong
and Macau.
The aim of the meeting was to build internal transportation
ties to create a more attractive environment for investment.
Although it was not explicitly stated, the Pan River Delta
region is facing increasing competition from the Yangzi
River Delta region, which is focused on Shanghai as its
center.
At the meeting close, the representatives from the nine
provinces and two regions committed to improving road,
rail and air links in the region. Other agreements agreed
to improve agriculture, interbank credit monitoring, education,
IT development environmental protection and public health
regulations.
Guangdong province, bordering on Hong Kong, has been
the home to China's earliest foreign investment experiment,
which began in 1980 with the establishment of the Shenzhen
Special Administrative Region across the border from Hong
Kong. With the success of the Shenzhen model, many initial
regulations which were tried in Shenzhen have been pushed
into other areas of China.
In the period since 1990, most government investment
money has gone into Shanghai, which was home to retired
Chinese president Jiang Zemin. Before becoming president
of China, Jiang was mayor of Shanghai.
In comparison to Guangdong, most of the other inland
provinces are comparatively poor, and are aggressively
seeking foreign investment. Most are reliant on agriculture,
and want to shift to a more industrial and urban population
mix without creating pollution.
Since Taiwan is politically separate from the Yangzi
River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, it has been left
out of development plans, even though many Taiwan companies
have significant investments in the region.
The next Pan Pearl River Development Council meeting
is to be held in 2005.
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