The cooperation will focus on developing the tourism market, spin-off products and communications as well as improving safety in the industry, He said.

He made these remarks came at the ministerial-level round-table meeting held on the final day of the three-day Boao Forum for Asia-Tourism Conference (BFA).

Specific projects and areas mentioned include border tourism, the Silk Road project and the greater Mekong sub-region tourism cooperation programme, in which "China will play a more active role and enhance cooperation with related countries."

Senior tourism officials from 14 countries who attended the round-table meeting, expressed their willingness to strengthen cooperation and assistance with other Asian countries.

"We are a big and integrated family in which a tiny hurt on any member will unavoidably influence the whole," said Richard Gordon, the Philippine tourism minister.

"China, with the largest tourist market - in terms of population - and the richest tourism resources, undoubtedly will be one of the leading countries in the future cooperative and collaborative mechanism," Gordon added.

The round-table meeting also proposed that a standing committee on tourism should be established to offer a stable and convenient platform, upon which BFA members can exchange information and expand their capacities and academic research in the field.

At the end of the conference, the Guilin Declaration, which set out four agreed topics, was issued. These were Asian regional tourism cooperation and development, new tourist products development, sustainable tourism growth, and more socio-economic contribution to the tourism sector.

The declaration underlined that participants viewed the government, the tourism trade and local communities as a strategic partnership in the promotion of sustainable tourism. Thus the role of the BFA and the Asia Cooperation Dialogue should be promoted along to forge Asia-wide cooperation, the declaration said.

(China Daily November 20, 2002)