Xiamen of Fujian province further moved to enhance closer cooperation with Hong Kong in a number of fields, as both cities seek opportunities in light of the nation's 12th Five-Year Plan.

Speaking at an open symposium Wednesday, Huang Ling, Xiamen vice mayor, stressed the freshly proposed role of the city to serve as a cross-Straits regional financial center. While the central government has offered its consent to the pilot scheme, specific projects and procedures have been left with the local government to contrive.

"It is possible that restrictions will be loosened for companies in Xiamen to get listed in Taiwan if they get listed in Hong Kong as a precursor, and vice versa for Taiwan's companies," she said.

And while Hong Kong is aiming to establish itself as the major offshore yuan market, more plans will be hammered out to attract companies from Xiamen, before moving forward to tap the Taiwan market.

But Hong Kong's bridging role also consists in introducing more overseas enterprises into Xiamen, especially in areas along the Taiwan Straits where transportation construction is booming to connect the nearby region.

A high-speed railway reaching Guangzhou and Shenzhen of Guangdong province is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2012, which is expected to shorten the traveling time to three hours. Highways are being built to connect itself with Shanghai as well as Hangzhou of Zhejiang province.

An already completed high-speed railway within Fujian province connecting Xiamen with other cities in Fujian is aiming to make Xiamen as the hub of the sprawling hinterland nearby.

Fred Lam, executive director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, believes that Xiamen's ongoing infrastructure enhancement has provided a prospect of opportunities not only in the financial sector, but also in logistics, commercial services, branding design as well as cultural and creative industry.

"When Xiamen started to implement the reform and opening-up policy as a special economic zone in the early 1980s, Hong Kong played a vital role in attracting and introducing overseas capital to the city. And now Hong Kong's role to further vitalize Xiamen's economy will only deepen in the coming years," said Yu Weiguo, member of the Standing Committee of CPC Fujian Provincial Committee and secretary of Xiamen Municipal Committee of the CPC.

Yu said that Hong Kong currently accounts for nearly half of the city's overseas investment, reaching over $10 billion.

A total of 28 contracts were signed between the two cities on Wednesday, including cooperation in personnel training programs and convention planning, which Hong Kong specializes in.

China Daily

(HK Edition 03/31/2011 page3)