A high-ranking Hong Kong official told his counterparts from Guangdong Province of China's mainland Friday that they are satisfied with the economic cooperation between the two sides and vowed to promote such cooperation to a higher level.

At the third working meeting of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Cooperation Joint Conference (Joint Conference) held here Friday, Hong Kong's Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang thanked the Guangdong delegation headed by the Executive Vice-Governor Tang Bingquan for their positive response to the request for encouraging competitive Guangdong enterprises, in particular private enterprises with great potential, to list and raise funds in Hong Kong and embark on joint ventures with Hong Kong's service industry.

On the implementation of the Mainland/Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), both sides agreed that good progress had been made since the last Plenary of the Joint Conference in areas such as information dissemination, promotion and facilitation of business operation.

Both sides agreed to jointly organize overseas business promotion activities, including a trade promotion in London at the end of the year.

At the meeting, Tsang noted that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is committed to taking an active part in the cooperation with the Pan-Pearl River Delta region, which covers nine southern provinces in mainland as well as Hong Kong and Macao. 

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2004)