China has begun efforts to build the largest regional cooperation platform, covering a geographical area that produces around one-third of the country's GDP.

As key to this effort, on Friday, the 6th Pan Pearl River Delta (PPRD) Regional Cooperation and Development Forum opened in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province.

The forum, scheduled to run from Aug. 27-31, is celebrated the theme of "deepening cooperation and seeking common development". It has attracted more than 10,000 participants, including officials, entrepreneurs and celebrities from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, as well as Taiwan.

The forum, begun in 2004, seeks to stimulate the economy within the pan-Pearl River Delta region, which covers Hainan, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, as well as Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

This move would help enhance regional cooperation, encourage labor mobility and accelerate the relocation of industry from China's well-off coastal region to the comparatively underdeveloped western region, said Xu Shangwu, secretary general of the Organizing Committee of the forum.

This would improve the comprehensive economic strength and global competitiveness of the entire region, he said.

During the previous five PPRD forums, more than 14,000 cooperative projects have been agreed, with their total investments exceeding 1.8 trillion yuan (US$264.71 billion), according to government statistics.

The GDP of the nine provincial regions in the Chinese mainland totaled 10.5 trillion yuan last year, up 11.8 percent from one year earlier. The growth rate was higher than the national GDP increase.

In addition to boosting the growth and cooperation in the pan-Pearl River Delta, China is also accelerating regional development in the northeastern region, Yangtze River Delta region, Bohai rim region, as well as the pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Zone.

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2010)