Hong Kong's top strategic business think-tank is widening its scope.

The special administrative region's chief Tung Chee-hwa has congregated his nine-member advisory team in Guangzhou.

He met with the council in the capital of Guangdong Province, which neighbours Hong Kong, for the second and last day of the annual consultation.

"It's the first time my council of international advisers has met outside Hong Kong," he said

The council, which started meeting annually in 1998, provides strategic suggestions from an international and regional perspective.

Moving the meeting gave the international entrepreneurs that make up the council a first-hand taste of South China's fast-growing economy.

It will help the advisers make more precise proposals for Hong Kong's development within the Greater Pearl River Delta, including strategies for the Hong Kong, Macao and the Pan Pearl River Delta Regions.

The group met Governor Huang Huahua and learned Guangdong is in great need of infrastructure construction and energy support, due to its soaring development.

The need may hints to possible business ties between Guangdong and the world's top companies.

Zhang Dejiang, Party secretary of Guangdong, emphasized the interdependent relationship between Hong Kong and Guangdong.

"Some 70 per cent of the foreign capital lured by Guangdong is from Hong Kong," said Zhang.

Of Guangdong's US$280 billion in imports and exports last year, some US$200 billion moved via Hong Kong, he said.

"It brings numerous business opportunities to Hong Kong's logistic, communication and shipping industries," he said.

The delegates visited Hua Wei, a high-tech enterprise, and shoemakers in Shenzhen and Dongguan yesterday afternoon.

The think-tank is made up of top leaders from the world's most successful corporations.

They include Karl-Hermann Baumann of Siemens, Sir John Bond of HSBC Holdings, Tasuku Takagaki of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Rob Routs with Royal Dutch/Shell Group.

(China Daily November 5, 2004)