China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HK SAR) and Guangdong Province reached a framework agreement on cooperation in Beijing Wednesday (April 7), in a bid to build the most vibrant and competitive city cluster in the Asian-Pacific region.
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attended the signing ceremony Wednesday held at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.
Signed between the governments of Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong, both in the south of the country, the agreement covers cooperation in nine areas including trans-boundary infrastructure, modern services industry, manufacturing and sci-tech innovation, business environment, living environment, education and talents.
The two sides hope to build a leading world-class economic area.
HK serves as a global financial center while Guangdong is the country's manufacturing export hub. HK is about 200 kilometers southeast of Guangzhou City, capital of Guangdong, or three hours drive.
The two sides hope to further enhance HK's status as a global financial center and speed up Guangdong's financial services development through cooperation, according to the agreement.
It also aims at giving full play to HK's advantage in the service industry and Guangdong's advantage in manufacturing, to establish an advanced manufacturing and modern service industry base.
According to the agreement, Hong Kong and Guangdong will speed up construction on cross-boundary infrastructure facilities, optimize business environment and enhance personnel, cargo, information and capital exchanges, so to establish an international aviation hub, shipping center and logistics center in the area featuring lower-cost and high efficiency.
The cooperation agreement also stresses development of green economy, ecological conservation, and improvement of living environment, among other goals.
HK SAR chief executive Donald Tsang and Guangdong governor Huang Huahua attended the signing ceremony.
