NANCHANG - The 7th Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) Regional Cooperation and Development Forum, China's largest regional cooperation platform which covers a geographical area that produces around one-third of the country's GDP, opened Sept 21 in Nanchang, capital of East China's Jiangxi province.

Chen Zhili, vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress announced the commencement of the forum, which is scheduled to run from Sept 21-24 under a theme of "accelerating the transformation of the pattern of economic development, deepening cooperation and seeking common development."

The annual session has attracted more than 10,000 participants, including officials, entrepreneurs and celebrities from the Chinese mainland and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, as well as representatives from some of the world's top 500 companies.

The forum, which began in 2004, aims to stimulate the economy within the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region, which includes Hainan, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region as well as Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

More than 6,600 cooperative projects have been clinched during the previous six PPRD forums, resulting in total investments in excess of 1.55 trillion yuan ($242.64 billion), according to government statistics.