China's pan-Pearl River Delta (PRD) region will embrace more business opportunities than any other regions in the world, Donald Tsang, chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said in Chengdu yesterday.

Tsang made the remark during his meeting with Zhang Zhongwei, secretary of Sichuan provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, on the sideline of the Second pan-PRD Regional Cooperation and Development Forum scheduled to start Monday in this capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

"Hong Kong has always been actively participating in pan-PRD regional cooperation. The mainland market is the biggest market to Hong Kong," Tsang said, adding that HK delegates will show great concern over cooperation in the traffic and infrastructure construction sectors.

Tsang said Hong Kong is also interested in the three sub-forums on financial market, development of modern logistic and intellectual property protection in the region, in which Hong Kong has advantages.

Tsang also invited all the companies in the region to attend the financial forum to be held in Hong Kong next year.

The pan-PRD arrangement was first launched last year, seeking closer economic ties between Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces in south China's Pearl-River region as well as Hong Kong and Macao SARs.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2005)