Edmund Ho calls for regional tourism cooperation in Great Pearl River Delta Region

Written on June 8, 2006 by a2zMacau

Macau, China, 07 June – The head of the Macau government, Edmund Ho, said Tuesday in Kunming, Yunnan province, that Macau should boost cooperation in the tourism sector with the Great Pearl River Delta in order to bolster its position as a regional leisure and vacation center.

Ho, who was in Yunnan province to take part in the 3rd Forum for Development and Cooperation of the Region of the Great Pearl River Delta (GPRD), said that a model of integrated regional tourism was the only way to develop the area by taking into account the different resources of each area.

"With effective cooperation on several levels, particularly in sharing tourism resources and information, as well as openness and joint development of tourism markets, it will be possible to take new steps in making the Great Pearl River Delta work as a whole," he said.

The GPRD is also known as 9+2, and includes the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

The eight provinces and the autonomous region of Guangxi represent a fifth of Choina's national territory and a third of the country’s population and gross domestic product. Its population is similar in size to that of the European Union.

"The government plans to drive and speed up the development of an exemplary tourist region, which includes culture, leisure, business, retail trade, sports competitions, themed conventions, exclusive cuisine, games and entertainment (…) for Macau to confirm its position as a center for leisure and vacations par excellence in the heart of the Great Pearl River Delta," Ho said.

On Monday during a meeting with representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as part of the Pearl River Delta Forum, Ho said that Macau was available to provide support to all ASEAN countries in the “process of opening up to the Portuguese-speaking market.”

"We have already done it with the autonomous Chinese regions and so we can do it for the ASEAN countries," he said.

The agenda for multilateral cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as trade and investment, includes “business cooperation, construction of infrastructures, exploration of natural resources and development of human resources.”

Source: macauhub

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