Some 300 experts, government officials and business people from India's West Bengal and Yunnan Province, in southwest China, on Sunday endorsed a plan calling for closer cooperation.

The call was issued in Dali, a picturesque city in Yunnan.

Before reaching a consensus on the Dali Initiative, participants spent two days talking over issues such as tourism, education, culture, trade and transportation at the fourth K2K International Conference, said Yang Jie, deputy chief of the development and research center of Yunnan.

The two Ks are Kunming, capital of Yunnan, and Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.

The first K2K international conference was held in Kolkata in 2003. The 2009 conference will be known as the K2K Forum and held in Kolkata in the fourth quarter.

China shares a border with India via the Tibet Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2008)