Administrative regions in southern China plan to form an economic bloc with Hong Kong and Macau to sustain rapid economic development and better compete with the booming Yangtze River delta region.
The proposed "pan-Pearl River Delta region" is scheduled to be inaugurated at a government meeting this May. It will include Guangdong, Guizhou, Fujian, Hunan, Hainan, Yunnan, Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions. Beijing will have to approve the bloc because of the "one country, two systems" policy which allows former colonies Hong Kong and Macau to have different political systems from the mainland.
Altogether, the proposed bloc holds 20 percent of China's land and 33 percent of its population. It contributes 40 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The region will focus on promoting the acceleration of road and rail links and transporting energy from the resource-rich west to the developed east.