A two-day forum on Pan-Beibu Gulf economic cooperation opened on Wednesday in Beihai, a coastal city in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with more than 600 attendees.

It is the first such event since the State Council, or cabinet, approved a plan submitted by Guangxi featuring "Guidelines Regarding Development of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone in Guangxi" in January.

The Beibu Gulf sits south of Guangxi. Pan-Beibu economic cooperation involves seven countries: China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei.

Among the participants in the forum are officials from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian nations and China, the staff of the United Nations organizations, Nobel Prize laureates in economics, representatives of the world's top 500 companies and multinationals and diplomats from Pan-Beibu Gulf countries to China, according to the forum organizers.

Participants will exchange views and hold discussions on three topics: Pan-Beibu Gulf economic cooperation amid an uncertain world economy; focal points, difficulties and prospects in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional cooperation, and the opening and development of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone and Pan-Beibu Gulf economic cooperation.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)