Senior officials for Guangzhou on Thursday signed a series of cooperation agreements with the neighboring city of Foshan in a bid to boost urban integration between the two Pearl River Delta (PRD) towns.

In addition to the framework agreement on the urban integration of Guangzhou and Foshan, both sides inked deals to cooperate in areas such as environmental protection, industrial coordination, urban planning and traffic infrastructure.

The framework agreement outlines the aim, principle and cooperative mechanism, while the other agreements promise joint meetings between the mayors of the two cities, cooperation in urban planning, infrastructure development, industrial integration and treatment of the polluted Pearl River, Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning said.

"Signing the agreements marks a new step towards the integration of the two cities," he said. "It has great significance in the implementation of the PRD development and planning blueprint."

Approved by the State earlier this year, the blueprint positions the PRD region, which includes nine cities and borders the Hong Kong and Macao, as a "leading economic powerhouse" of China.

It promises more autonomy to the region, too, through economic restructuring, coordinated urban and rural development, as well as social reforms in a bid to realize economic and social integration by 2020.

An intercity mass transit system, a distribution network for natural gas and refined oil, a public information database and unified energy prices are expected to take shape by then.

Many citizens in the two cities, especially those living on the common border, are expecting the integration to make their life more convenient and improve public security.

Qian Changjiang, a Foshan citizen who works in Guangzhou, is one of them.

"The public transport system between the two cities should be improved, fares lowered and tollhouses abolished," he told China Daily.

"A number of Foshan residents work in Guangzhou and vice versa. It will help us save a lot of time and money," he said.

Qian said he also expected a time when Guangzhou's metro lines extended all the way to downtown Foshan.

Peng Peng, a researcher with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The integration between the two cities will take a long time.

"Policy makers should first be clear on what's common and what's different between the two cities."

(China Daily March 20, 2009)