Regional Economic Co-operation

83. Hong Kong has developed into a services-oriented economy that relies on the vast Mainland market. The Pan-PRD regional co-operation initiative, launched last year, enables us to use the well-tested experience gained in the PRD and apply it to the huge market in southern and central China covering an area of 2 million square kilometers and with a population of 450 million. In July this year, I attended the Second Pan-PRD Regional Co-operation and Development Forum in Sichuan. A series of agreements was concluded by participating provinces and regions. We will leverage our strengths to expand the scope of services that can facilitate development in the Pan-PRD region and help the Pan-PRD provinces and regions to enter the global market.

84. Guangdong figures prominently in our regional economic co-operation. Through concerted efforts of the Hong Kong and Guangdong Governments, the scope of co-operation keeps expanding and moving up the value chain. Significant results have been achieved in areas such as investment and trade, cross-border infrastructure, environmental protection, facilitating people and cargo flows, promoting implementation of CEPA in Guangdong, attracting Guangdong enterprises to Hong Kong, as well as technological and educational exchanges and joint overseas promotion. In the eighth plenary session of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference held last month, the two sides agreed in a practical manner to step up co-operation in information sharing and food safety. From now on, we will strengthen our interface in planning to perfect the infrastructural system in the Greater PRD region, to achieve full connectivity of air, sea and land transport among the cities in the region. We have also enhanced our communication with the Shenzhen Municipal Government on issues such as border control point development and public order. We will work particularly closely with Shenzhen in infrastructural planning, food safety and ecological improvements.

85. The land along the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen has long been a designated closed area. Now that Hong Kong has returned to the Motherland, “One Country, Two Systems” has been effectively implemented. Illegal cross-border activities are in check because of
co-operation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. On the advice of the security departments and on the basis that an effective border will be maintained, we have decided to reduce the size of the closed area significantly. We will redraw the limits of the new closed area and will study how the land released should be put to use. The sizeable private land holdings and wetlands with conservation value in the area, and the substantial cost of development, make careful overall planning a must. The relevant planning work and the fencing of the new closed area will proceed in parallel. In this connection, the Government will, in the first half of 2006, commence the planning study, consult the public, and then draw up statutory plans.