Mega bridge construction begins
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Li also urged construction authorities to work with a strong sense of responsibility and sense of mission, and build a landmark in the region and a model of cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao in the field of infrastructure construction.
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Edmund Ho Hau Wah, chief executive of the Macao SAR, and Chui Sai On, the incoming Macao SAR chief executive, also attended the inauguration ceremony.
During a meeting with the three officials, Li said he hoped the two SARs could further enhance cooperation with Guangdong to seek mutual benefit and common development by drawing on one another's advantages.
Li vowed all-out efforts of the central government to continue to support the Hong Kong and Macao SAR chief executives and governments to govern by law.
He urged the SAR governments to closely watch changes in the global economic and financial situation, consolidate the stabilizing trend in the regions' economies, and promote the long-term prosperity and economic development of Hong Kong and Macao.
The central government is developing the Pearl River Delta, the former vanguard of China's economic reform, into a new test field for the country as it works to deepen economic reform and open itself wider to the outside world.
Under a 2008-2020 development plan for the southern Pearl River Delta released in January by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the delta, together with Hong Kong and Macao, will be forged into "a globally competitive" and "vigorous area in the Asia-Pacific region" by 2020.
The area includes the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Jiangmen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Huizhou and Zhaoqing in southern Guangdong Province.
The NDRC plan maps out comprehensive development for the delta area, including industrial development, technology innovation, environmental protection and social welfare. The plan also includes cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao.
For a long period, Hong Kong and Macao developed their own industries with different competitive edges. Hong Kong is known as an international center of trade, shipping, travel, finance and information, while Macao boasts its industries of gambling, manufacturing, financial insurance and architecture.
The bridge could promote industrial competitiveness in the region, consolidate economic ties, and speed up construction of an integrated regional market, said Prof. Yuan Chiping, with the Hong Kong, Macao, Zhuhai Delta Studies Center of the Guangzhou-based Zhongshan University.
"The region is expected to become of the most dynamic economic zones in the world with the bridge," he said.
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